


The Huntress

by Cursebreaker_Dregs12



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Court of Thorns and Roses Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fae, BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/M, Gaara/Naruto Friendship, Human Naruto, Not exactly a fusion, Own plot line, Sakura is half fae half human, Slow Burn, Takes inspiration from both verses, fae gaara, fae sasuke, hunter sakura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 01:49:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17819534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cursebreaker_Dregs12/pseuds/Cursebreaker_Dregs12
Summary: Sakura Haruno is a fae halfing that will do any job for the right price. But what happens when a strange blonde kid breaks into her room  to  take her away to the capital of Konohona. She thinks NOT! But somehow she still ends up getting mixed up with the kid and his group of friends. There seems to be powers at work here that are beyond even this young huntresses control, can she rise to the challenge?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys so this is my first story EVER-So please be gentle in the critiques please! I don't mind critiquing but not when its mean. Also I am a HUGE fan of Sarah J. Maas and her work in A Court of Thorns and Roses and just recently got grabbed by the Naruto fandom again and thought how awesome would it be to merge these two verses together?? And I will write Sakura as BAMF Sakura til the day I die because as much as I respect Kishimoto I don't believe he respected his female characters enough! Again Sakura could've been soooo better written in Canon. So I'm gonna attempt to add a little Sarah J. Maas awesomeness to this verse and to Sakura! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> I do not own anything of Sarah J. Maas's work and or Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto verse.

Sakura sniffed the air. She wasn’t far from her prey, and though she dreaded to admit it, she was thankful for her nose, that was just a little more sensitive to scents. Especially with this hunt. The mayor of this godforsaken town had offered her double to eliminate the nest of lesser fae, pouka, if she was sniffing the air right. Annoying creatures. They enjoyed luring travelers to their deaths by changing their form into something the traveler desired, usually a loved one from the past, or promises of fortune etc. Sakura rolled her eyes, dumbasses. Most of the travelers would be eaten once they reached the pouka’s nest. Nasty things, she thought with a grimace. Lucky for her she’d long since learned how to track and kill most of the lesser fae. Though from time to time she’d have a tougher time because the lesser fae had been from a stronger bloodline, making her work a little harder for her shells. But most of the time she could handle lesser fae.

  
      She was nearing the nest, when a wave of rancid meat smell came over her. She held back a gag, she decided to leap up to a tree to get a better look of the nest and to hopefully disperse that terrible smell. Much to her dismay she didn’t escape the smell, though the wind helped her breath a little better. She overlooked the nest. It seemed the pouka were enjoying a fresh kill but the half-eaten bodies that the creatures had strewn around the rest of the nest was what was making her hold her breath. She decided not to look at the pathetic corpse that seemed to belong to a traveler, and instead looked at her prey. They weren’t disguising themselves now and were in their original form. They had a gaunt look to their body with white, scraggly hair. Their skin was that of a white birch tree with strips of it coming up showing black, _Blood?,_ their hands and feet were gnarled and the fingers had long razor sharp nails on the end of them. Their eyes where the worst part about them. Black holes in their head with a small red dot in the middle of the irises. Definitely creepy.

       Sakura notched three of her arrows, not her preferred weapon of choice, she’d much rather use her daggers or her fists but she’d also, prefer not to patch herself up today. The wind was on her side because the pouka still had not discovered her scent and were merrily eating away at their victim. Sakura took aim, and loosened the arrows. Three were killed instantly, the arrows hitting their mark between the eyes. In fact, the others were so busy with the feast they didn’t even notice the three she had killed. She aimed three more arrows and fired. Two of them hit their mark, one of the creatures had sensed her and dodged the arrow. _Damn._

  
      The remaining pouka still hadn’t found her hiding spot in the tree and it was looking around for her. She grabbed her second to last arrow and waited for the right opening. Though it couldn’t see her just yet, pouka could be extremely fast and she didn’t want to waste her shot. Right when it looked at her, she let the arrow fly.

  
     She hit its leg and jumped down from the tree rushing toward her prey. It was running but with that limp and her heightened abilities she caught up to it quickly. She slung the bow onto her shoulder and unsheathed one of her daggers. Before the thing could even screech, she cut its head off. She wrapped the head with a cloth she had brought just for that and put it in her spare bag. The mayor said he had wanted proof of the kill. She wandered back to the nest, she made sure all of them were in fact, dead and looked over to the pathetic victim laying there. She sighed and unslung her backpack to root for her collapsible shovel she had paid a pretty shell for. Once she had found and collapsed it, she started digging a grave a little farther away from the nest. Damn her bleeding heart. Though she was not a stranger to death, after all her mother had been a skilled healer, she still wasn’t one to appreciate it. Yes, it was a part of her everyday life, being a hunter and all, she just hated how the innocent usually ended up involved no matter what she tried. She sighed and wrapped her hands in bandages she had in her bag to make sure she didn’t touch any of the body’s fluids, she didn’t want to get any infection, even if she was immune to most of the disease’s humans acquired, the pouka had still devoured the human and she didn’t want to risk their saliva touching her. Sliding the body into the grave. She covered the grave and decided to make a little marker out of a birch tree she had seen by the nest. Rather ironic she thought as she pounded the tree stump into the ground.

  
     “My, my, my what a kind murderer you are.” A wispy, dry voice whispered. Sakura stood up unsheathing her daggers. She looked around trying to pinpoint where the voice had come from. She started to move toward her pack that she had laid on the ground.

  
    “Heh, heh, why cover that pathetic thing. After all, have you not done worse to others?” The voice came again. Dammit, where in the hell are you? Sakura thought still not able to pinpoint the voice.

  
    “My and such beautiful pink hair. I haven’t seen hair that color in many moons.” _Shit_! She had put her hood down while digging the grave since it had been in the way and she had gotten hot.

  
     “Sakura Haruno, the halfling that hunts whatever, so long as the price is right.” The voice accused.

  
Not all that surprising, she knew she’d been gaining a reputation with how she conducted her business. But she didn’t think anyone from the fae community would even care, after all most high fae wouldn’t even acknowledge lesser fae, let alone care if she killed a few. _There!_ A movement caught her eye. The owner of the voice it seemed had deemed it necessary to let itself be known. Walking towards her was the form of a younger woman who was in fact nude, but it didn’t really matter because the very curvy form was completely covered in red swirling, _paint?_ She hoped it was paint. Even her face was covered in the stuff. The form also had very long hair? No, it was brown leaves layered on top of one another. And the form had eyes that were completely green. No irises or anything just green holes in its head.

  
   “State your business.” Sakura asked the creature. Hoping to distract it so she could figure out an escape route.

  
“Oh, ho ho, giving me orders? Not a wise choice halfling.” Sakura ground her teeth. She hated being called a halfling. It was a nickname that older, high fae bestowed on creatures such as herself. A mockery if you will of what they were.

  
“State your business.” She said in an icy tone.

  
“Hmmm, I merely wished to glimpse upon the halfling that has stirred the fae community.” The being said.

  
“Stirred the fae community?” Sakura asked rather in disbelief. _I’m just a halfer. Nothing special?_

  
“Why yes my dear halfling.” The being whispered into her ear. _Shit!_ The fae had moved behind her without Sakura even being able to track her. She wasn’t dealing with just any fae it seemed.

  
“Ha-ha, I really wasn’t lying about that beautiful hair of yours, and your eyes too. Quite breathtaking. Though I would say I’m biased.” The fae said tipping Sakura’s head back to look better at her. She was so screwed! The fae merely tilted her head at Sakura and smiled. Showing her very sharp, very long fangs in doing so. Sakura gulped. The fae twirled around and motioned her hand in a come with me gesture and swayed toward a giant oak tree. _Wait had that been there before? And shit OAK? NOT GOOD!_ Like most of the fae community oak was lethal to her. It was even worse to her because she was a halfer and could very likely die from just a scratch. She stopped herself, realizing she was actually trying to follow the fae.

  
“Do not worry child I am not seeking revenge I merely have a gift for you.”

  
“Ummm, yeah because I believe everything a strange fae woman says to me.”The said fae woman gave her another fang showing smile after that comment.  
“You. Are. Delicious.” She said licking her lips. _Right_  
“Look lady I’m not following you anywhere. So, I’m just gonna go, away from here.” She turned the opposite direction and poof the fae was there.

  
“So delicious.” She said as she snaked a hand around and put her two fingers to her head. Suddenly Sakura felt woozy. As her vision became blurry, she heard the fae woman in her head. _I shall leave the gift here. And remember child, should you ever need a helping hand merely ask it and I shall be received_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second chapter I have up to chapter 8 at the moment but I'm a stickler for editing and making sure the chapter flows well so bear with me and my over critiquing! But this is starting to introduce new characters!

         Sakura woke up with a start. She was laying down in what appeared to be a pile of leaves, the moon was high in the sky and nocturnal animals were making their song. _Son of a bitch._ She sat up then, ignoring the wave of nausea, realizing she had been out for the rest of the day. She got up, picked up her pack and slung her bow across her shoulder.  Cursing the damned fae woman that had knocked her out. _Could have been worse, I guess. She could have eaten me._ Sakura made her way back to the town counting her lucky stars that the fae had seemed more of the playful, if not confusing type, rather than eating you whole type.

      Once her hood was up and none of her hair could be seen she made her way to the mayor’s house in town. Though the town itself wasn’t big in of itself it was old. Rare considering many towns around fae borders didn’t make a habit of staying. Even if they did most of the buildings weren’t the original structures from ages past. _Hmm…the Uchiha must’ve liked this place._ She thought walking down the different alleyways to get to the rather large and gothic manor the mayor had. Even if the people didn’t seem too perturbed by her presence here, she still preferred making herself scarce to prying eyes. Once she arrived at the mayor’s house, she told the butler who she was and he led her to the mayor’s study. The mayor expressed his gratitude and paid her the hefty sum for the hunt. It wasn’t exactly the best bag to carry shells in but she decided she’d make sure to switch them to her own pouch once back in her room at the inn. As she turned to leave the mayor cleared his throat. She turned to the man who was rather robust in stature and was balding by the looks of his receding hairline. But he was properly dressed most likely being a smart businessman. She wasn’t super sure what this town dealt in but it wasn’t like she was going to stay to find out.

            “Yes?” Sakura said giving him a sweet smile if only to hurry this meeting along. She really wanted to get a bath tonight.

            “Before you go m’dear, you didn’t…sense any peculiarities out in those woods, did you?” The mayor asked. Sakura decided to not to tell the mayor about her strange run-in with the fae woman. _I mean it’s not like it’s his business anyhow._

            “No, I did not. Sorry about the wait, again the tracking took longer than expected. You know how devious pouka can be.” She said instead. Though it made her see red with downplaying her abilities, it was necessary. She decided to give a little smile to the mayor so he didn’t ask more questions.

            “I ask because we are on the border of the Uchiha bloodline and many people have stated they felt a, well I suppose, menacing presence from those woods.” The mayor said.

 _Why tell me?_ It wasn’t like she planned on staying long here anyways. She was going to leave tomorrow morning once she had a decent meal and a bath. Then in the morning she was gone.

            “Nope, no problems or peculiarities sir.” She said with her ‘dealing with humans’ smile. After his curt nod she turned and left.

            She made her way to her inn she had decided to stay at in the town. The Inn wasn’t large much like the rest of the buildings in this town, the mayor’s manor being the only larger structure in this town, but it was quaint and clean. As well as having the sweetest innkeeper who made some of the most amazing food she ever had. She shook her head, who would’ve thought such cuisine could be found out here. She continued walking in the cobble streets, another thing you usually didn’t see this far out from the capital, taking the route to the inn and her much desired bath. Not surprisingly there was no one out walking, all were most likely at the tavern in the village. She knew many humans preferred to drown their sorrows in the burning liquid of sake or even the sweeter taste of mead. Just then she looked up because a shadow had crossed her path. There was a boy it looked like standing on one of the roofs, _odd?_ Staring up at the moon. Sakura admitted the moon was quite lovely at the moment but she wasn’t about to crawl up a house to get on a roof to stare at the thing. She shook her head and made the rest of her way to the inn.

            She checked in with the sweet innkeeper who asked her if she needed anything of her. Shaking her head, she made her way back to her room. The room was spacious and elegantly decorated if not a little simple but the bed was the real prize here with the soft mattress and ever soft sheets. She literally felt like she was on a cloud when she first slept here. Once she dropped off her clothes and weapons in her room, she made her way to the baths that they offered to only their high paying patrons. She needed a good soak after all the crap that had happened to her today.

         Walking into the little hot spring that the inn was able to offer out back she picked a corner that would be easily defensible should a reason to defend herself arise, and sunk into the steaming water. Sakura moaned as the hot water cascaded over her. _God, I love baths._  Though she was an abnormally fast healer even by halfer’s standards she still enjoyed the way a bath could help ease the aches and pains she sustained during her hunts. Which was why she normally picked a town that had an inn with a bath whenever she had hunts to go on.  She got herself more settled into her little alcove letting herself suspended in the water. She had been lucky there was no one in the bath with her. _Suppose it’s my lucky day._ Sakura thought turning her lips up in a smirk. _Yeah right…like that ever happens to me._ Sakura sighed.

     Though it was nice that she had no company, it also allowed her to get lost in her thoughts. Thoughts that should not be allowed to surface, especially since she was trying to relax in her bath. Sakura still floating in the water opened her eyes looking at the constellations her mother had shown her so long ago. _I hope you’re up there with them looking down at me._ Sakura’s mother, though an amazing healer, had been obsessed with the sky. Supposedly it was the sky that had brought her mother and father together. Her father had loved the sky, but his favorite part of the sky, was the night sky with all the stars shining. Her mother had never told her why he liked it so much, whenever she asked her about it, she would just look at her with a strange expression on her face and then smile at her and say ‘I’ll tell you when you’re older.’ _Not like she ever got the chance_ ; no, her mother had had the unfortunate ability of loving everything too much. Sakura sighed and decided to sit up. _It wasn’t like she had always wanted to be a huntress_ , she thought, _hell she thought she’d be a healer like her mother before her_. Not that she wasn’t skilled, her mother had made sure to pass down all the skills she had acquired to Sakura, it was the fact that anymore Sakura was restless. _And the fact that you’re terrified if you stay too long in any one place for long you might end up like Mama._  She sighed and decided to slide her entire self under the water. She loved when the water would make it so that she could only hear the muffled world around her.

      She came back up to the surface so that she was floating on her back but only her face was in the open. As she floated, she thought some more about how she had ended up where she was. Her mother had never truly told her daughter everything about her relationship with her father but what she could wriggle out of her was that the man had been fae, and Mama had healed him, not caring that he was fae or human, the stigma was still very big in certain parts of the world, what with the war only being a few generations old, so it had surprised the fae male. And in the healing process they had fallen for one another. He had shown her the night sky and all the hidden beauty in it, she had shown this strong man how a gentle touch could be one of the strongest notions at certain times. Her mother used to tell the tale with a sad smile on her face. Sakura realized it had hurt her mother to talk about her father so she had stopped asking. She supposed she had gotten her pink hair from her father, her mother had been a dirty blonde, though she had gotten her jade eyes from her mother. And the strength had definitely been a thing from her father. Though she supposed most fae males could probably throw boulders if they really thought about it. She sighed for like the fifteenth time tonight realizing her thoughts always seemed to come back to the big question of who her father had been. Even if not in those exact words.

            She decided to get out at that point realizing her thoughts where going to spiral in a direction she did not wish to follow. She headed back to her room throwing herself on the bed and fell fast asleep once her head hit the pillow.

            Sakura came to consciousness, though begrudgingly, to a sound of someone rooting through her stuff. At first, she didn’t even understand what she was hearing but her fae ears weren’t ones to get confused. She moved her hand underneath her pillow gripping the hunting knife she always had under her head as she slept and waited a heartbeat more to gauge where the would-be assailant was in her room. It seemed he was to her right, she threw the knife, slashing the assailant’s face, jumping up she threw her fist towards their face, they dodged the first feinting to the right. Sakura snarled as they hit her in the torso and attempted to trip her. She grabbed their arm and threw them up over her head and back down to the floor. Holding back her strength, after all she could throw him through the floor if she wanted. But she wanted answers. She then went to kick their head down to knock them out when they reached out and grabbed her ankle and pulled her down on top of them. She threw out her hands to catch herself so her chest wouldn’t smash into the assailant’s face.

            “Oh!” The person exclaimed. Sakura looked down at the person under her, the moon illuminated the boy underneath her, he had brilliant blonde hair that was sticking up in all sorts of directions, and some of the most sapphire blue eyes Sakura had ever seen. His face suggested he was about Sakura’s age and he had strange whisker markings on his cheeks with one having a little scratch from her hunting knife, which were steadily getting redder. That is in fact when she realized she was completely nude. _Dammit I forgot to put on a night shirt._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's chapter 2! again I'll try to post regularly but I want to make sure the story flows well plus I'm in my last semester of college so I'm a bit busy with homework stuff. Again I ask for patience! Thank you for reading this far and please leave comments and kudos!:)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter! This one is shorter than the rest but I promise next one we finally get to see fae Sasuke!

Sakura growled, exposing her fangs a little to intimidate this human boy, because his ears in fact were round, who had broken into her room, “What are you doing in my room, boy!”

            “You’re Sakura Haruno aren’t ya?” The boy said smiling.

            “What’s it to you?” She snarled.

            “Finally, we’ve been looking everywhere for ya!”

            Sakura’s eyes grew wide. People were looking for her, _Crap, I gotta get outta here!_ She pushed herself up onto her feet looking for her clothes. She found them dry and laundered on the chest at the end of her bed. _Bless that innkeeper_ She ran over to them and slipped on her black leggings, that were deceptively light, but could withstand her huntress lifestyle, and her black undershirt.

            “Umm, as much as I’m enjoyin the show, I can’t let ya leave.” The boy said now standing right before her.

            “Is that so?” She snarled pulling on her deep red tunic, that hugged her slight curves, and came to a v in the front so that her black undershirt was visible to the belly button but the back flared out slightly over her bottom and continued down to her knees. She sat down and started pulling on her black boots, ignoring whatever yammering the kid was saying. Proceeding to strap on her daggers and knives making sure her bow was over by her pack, the kid was STILL talking, she rolled her eyes.

            When she heard a knock on her door. _What the fuck!_ The boy walked over to the door opening it to let in a man with a scar across his nose and brown spiky hair that was up in a ponytail. _Do these guys not own a brush?_ And a black cloak with a swirling red symbol on the back. _Wait a minute,_ she recognized that symbol as one from the old king’s family crest. He was one of the humans who helped win the war that had happened among the fae and humans. She couldn’t remember the name though.

            “Right this is Iruka-sensei, we’re here to escort you to the village of Konoha.” The blonde said with a beaming smile. Sakura merely glared at him and grabbed her cloak off the bed post and slung her pack and bow on her shoulders and ran to the window. She felt bad, after all the innkeeper had cleaned her clothes, but she was not staying in that room a moment longer and decided the best option would be to break the window and escape that way. She jumped down onto the ground, soon as her feet touched the ground, she raced off toward the woods.

             Granted they weren’t her first option, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She heard an annoyed “Oi!” but she didn’t stop. There was no way she was going to Konoha. That was the human kingdom and she wasn’t about to get wrapped up in their pathetic lot in life. She heard footsteps behind her and decided to run a little faster to her destination. Once she reached the edge of the woods, she spared a glance back at her would be pursuers, except they were running right behind her with a mob of the townspeople running after her pursuers. _What in the hell?_ The boy and man caught up to her.

             “What are ya doin? Keep runnin!” The blonde yelled and grabbed her hand as he raced past her, dragging her with him. Well this was a weird turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please leave comments or kudos thank you!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok since the other chapter was so short I'm uploading the 4th chapter too. It's still a little awkward in bits even after all my editing, but it's good enough, I think...I hope? but anyways told ya we'd get fae Sasuke! ;) Anyhooo i'll let ya go so you can enjoy!

Sasuke was annoyed. Granted that was his mood most days but today he was more annoyed than usual. It could be the fact that he was sitting in a council room with the heads of the fae courts, the people who were supposed to be discussing the betterment of the fae lands, not…well this!

            Itachi, his older brother along with his annoying cousin Shisui were sitting there with the heads of the blood lines.  Hyuga, Hiashi, who controlled the winter court lands in the fae world, Inoichi Yamanaka, who controlled the spring court, Kankuro Suna of the autumn court, Aburame of the dawn court and Akimichi of the summer court. The day court representative was noticeably missing but no one was willing to acknowledge the absence. And to make things more awkward, they were discussing something completely asinine!  Marriage! His marriage! _What in the hell,_ Sasuke thought because not only were they talking about his marriage they were talking about one of their daughters or it seemed sisters as well, to be married to him!

             As much as he liked Hinata, and begrudgingly tolerated Ino, he had only ever saw those two as acquaintances, hell he didn’t even consider them friends, let alone consider them to be his mate. And don’t get him started on the hatred Temari seemed to harbor for him. After her brother seemed to pick his family over hers. And to top it off his bodyguard and sensei, Kakashi was standing across from him with that annoying smirk on his face. Though the man always covered half his face Sasuke knew the man well enough to see that little smug smirk underneath his mask. Sasuke tore his glare from his sensei to focus on his brother who had asked him something.

            “What?”

            “I said little brother if you could stop glaring at our sensei, I’d love for you to decide which alliance you would like?” Itachi said, giving Sasuke a pointed look. The Uchiha blood line controlled the night court, one of the vastest lands in the fae world, and to be aligned with them would be mean that line would have much affluence and power in their world. _Right._ Sasuke took his time to answer the question working on the best way to word what his brother had already told him in that look. He spared a glance over at Kakashi, though the man infuriated him at times, he was still someone he trusted. Kakashi merely gave him his indiscernible nod.

            “In hearing the three proposals, I must have time to decide which one will best benefit my line. I will give you my answer within the fortnight. Thank you Lord Hyūga, Lord Yamanaka and Lord Suna.” Sasuke said with a note of authority so as to dissuade argument on his decision. Though the lords looked less than pleased with his answer, especially Hiashi Sasuke saw it as his best course of action. Thankfully, Itachi looked pleased with his answer. He merely nodded, “The Lords are more than welcome to stay in our palace until the fortnight is over. Thank you for attending but I will call this to an end.”

            Sasuke hid a moan after hearing the Lines would be staying longer. He wasn’t sure how much more of Ino’s pestering he could handle. She was determined to stake her claim on him, even if he wasn’t. As Sasuke got up and walked towards the hall Kakashi was walking beside him.

            “Did I sense a bit of nervousness in there, my cute little student?” Kakashi said with his normal flippant way of talking. Sasuke ground his teeth.

            “No.”

            “Then what was that little glance for?” Kakashi said giving him a side long glance himself.

            “I was just making sure my perverted sensei wasn’t reading his book.” Sasuke ground out.

            “Oh ho ho, everyone already knows about my little book. I’m more than willing to let you take a peek if you’re so interested.”

            “No thanks.” Sasuke said trying to hide the blush working its way up to his pointed ears.

            “Are you so sure? After all you are going to have a beautiful new bride here shortly.” Sasuke glared at his sensei. Kakashi merely gave him a smile and winnowed away.

            “Sasukeeeeee!” _Damn. That asshole had sensed her._ A young, blonde fae woman with pale blue eyes came bounding over to Sasuke, with a raven-haired fae in tow behind her. A little further back was a tall dirty blonde fae. Ino, Hinata and Temari, his three perspective brides. He groaned internally.

            “Oh, Sasuke I was afraid we’d missed you!” Ino said hugging the raven-haired male.

            “H-h-h-hello, Lord Sasuke.” Hinata stuttered. She had always been shy and her father’s constant critiquing had made the woman in front of him lack self-confidence. Whereas the blonde that had a hold of his arm now was the exact opposite and needed a lesson in humility.

            “Hinata.” Sasuke nodded acknowledging her.

            “So Sasuke, why don’t we go out dancing tonight? After all me and the girls are here for a while and it’s been so long since we’ve been able to hang out.” _There’s a reason for that!_ Sasuke thought trying to detangle his arm from the blonde. The other blonde on the other hand just stood behind Hinata with an exasperated expression on her face.

            “Sasuke and I actually have patrol tonight. Sorry to disappoint Miss Yamanaka.” Who would happen to show up and save him from coming up with a lame ass excuse but his best friend, Gaara.

            The red-haired male was a rather intimidating presence with pale blue eyes that were always rimmed in what seemed black coal, even though he had never admitted to Sasuke that he used it. He also sported a brand on his forehead that read ‘love’ for his betrayal of the autumn court. Though Gaara was Sasuke’s best friend here Gaara had never explicitly told him what betrayal he had committed to get exiled from the autumn court. Though he still wore traditional garb from the autumn court, a red kimono, and a black undershirt that covered his neck, which he always kept hidden and with a black tie off at his waist that also held his katana.

            Understandably his sister looked rather awkward upon Gaara’s arrival to the group and actually backed up a bit from them as a response. Though Hinata was the only one to acknowledge the subtle move. Gaara was deceptively impassive whenever facing his family and usually kept himself scarce. Sadly, Gaara must’ve sensed his distress and came to help him out anyways.

            “Aw, c’mon you two can’t wiggle your way out to come hang with us three hot babes?” Sadly, Ino was one of the few people who was not intimidated by Gaara and was one of the few who could get him to talk, other than himself of course. Even Itachi had a hard time talking to Gaara. 

            In answer to her question Gaara merely shook his head, “Sorry Miss Yamanaka but we cannot.”  Ino started to pout, “Its ok Ino, I’ll…. I’ll…come with you.” Hinata said. _And of course, Hinata would try to make Ino feel better._ Ever since Sasuke could remember Hinata was always Ino’s shadow. The other blonde simply snorted and looked away from the group seeming to find something outside more entertaining.

            “Hinata you’re such a peach!” Ino said, kissing the raven-haired girl on the cheek, like she had completely forgotten that two seconds ago she was pouting. Ino went on babbling to Hinata and Temari. While Gaara and Sasuke talked via their own way. _Thanks for the save._ Gaara looked over at Sasuke. _I figured she’d try to make a move on you, so I seeked you out. Nothing more._ Sasuke shook his head. _Still, thanks._ Between Ino babbling and Sasuke talking to Gaara he hadn’t heard his brother sneak up on the little group they formed. Itachi Uchiha was beside Hinata chuckling about the scene before him.

            “Brother?” Sasuke said as the rest of the group either bowed or nodded acknowledging Itachi.

            “Gaara, what have I told you about bowing. There’s no need.”

            “I must show my respect Lord Uchiha.”

            “Hmmm. Well hello their Miss Yamanaka, Miss Hyuga and Miss Suna. How are you three lovely ladies?” Itachi said.

            “Ah, um,”

            “Thank you so much for letting us stay here. I hope we can see more of you Lord Uchiha” Ino said grabbing Hinata’s hand. Which Sasuke thought was odd but Ino always did it to Hinata whenever the girl seemed to turn real red. Even Temari moved closer to the raven-haired woman seeming to sense something was off about the girl.

            “Of course. I hope I can, but you know how running a court can be. But I must admit I actually came over here to grab my little brother. If you’ll excuse us.”

            Sasuke looked over to Gaara, giving Gaara a message that he would see him later on. One of the perks of being a Uchiha, the bloodline was full of Daemati. Daemati were fae who could use mind control and invasion. Though he was nowhere near the skill of Itachi, he still had an enormous amount of power. Which had taken many years to bend and work to his will.

            “I was wondering when Ino would latch onto you.” Itachi said bringing Sasuke out of his reverie.

            “Hmn.” Sasuke said.  Itachi chuckled.  Even though Sasuke choose to say very little on a good day, his brother was always able to decipher him even if he didn’t like it at times.

            “I was pleased with your response today. I know you may not…appreciate it my inviting them to stay here but I would like you to really think about which one of those girls you want for a bride.” Itachi stated.

            “None would be just fine.” Sasuke said. Itachi had stopped when he said that making Sasuke pull a little in front of him.

            “Sasuke you know the fae need this union. We are the Uchiha and we have a responsibility to the fae to provide-“

            “I know, I know, alright. Just a warning would’ve been nice.” Sasuke said glaring at a light in the wall.

            “I know little brother, just try to get to know them. They aren’t that bad after all.” Itachi said walking beside him again.

            “Tch.” Sasuke said but continued walking with his brother. He had missed him. They weaved a path through the decadent halls of the Uchiha palace simply enjoying each other’s company. Until Izumi, the fae woman Sasuke suspected Itachi was in love with, and their cousin Shisui called out to Itachi. Some unknown message must’ve been delivered via their own conversation. Though they all had the powers of a daemati, it was still rude to interrupt people’s private conversations. And Sasuke had been raised to never intervene in such a conversation unless it was for a mission. Itachi sighed.

            “I’m afraid I must go. I’ll see you soon?”

            “Hm.” Sasuke nodded waving at his brother headed to his two main confidants. Sasuke headed towards his and Gaara’s usual meeting spot in the outlying woods of the palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah in this verse only Sasuke's parent's were killed...buttttt we'll see how it all works out! i'm still really bouncing the plot around and even though I have a basic outline its the minute details that make a story so yeah! Anyways I know in the anime/manga Gaara really actually doesn't like Sasuke but for this story it worked with what I wanted, plus Ino as a fae and unafraid of Gaara was to fun to pass up! Again please leave kudos and comments:)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about taking so long to update, school keeps getting in the way and I wanted to review it again before I decided to post it again. It still probably a little rough for me but i don't wanna keep you guys waiting to much longer.

            Sakura bent over trying to catch her breath much like her unlikely compatriots.

            “By the way I’m Naruto Uzumaki!” The blonde boy said standing up and offering his hand to her. Sakura just looked up at him trying to understand the boy in front of her, then looking down at his hand. She took it asking, “What the hell just happened back there?” It was the older man who answered her.

            “It would seem the townspeople were not receptive to our kind.” He said pushing himself up from his doubled-over position.

            “What do you mean? Human? They’re human themselves.” Sakura said still confused that if they could tolerate her, why wouldn’t they accept one of their own species.

            “Yes. I mean we are human but I’m assuming it had to do with the symbol on the back of my cloak more so than whether or not our ears are pointed or not.” Iruka, Sakura thought was his name, supposed.

            “Yeah not a lot of people of our, race, I guess? Don’t like royalty even if it is ex-royalty or not.” Naruto said scratching the back of his head and smiling at Sakura.

            “So, I’m assuming that’s the symbol of the older generation of royalty, not the new regime that you humans deemed worthy?” Sakura said. She made sure to keep herself a little debriefed on political affairs happening around her, so as to keep an extra careful eye open when she traveled. From what she knew there had been a split between old and new between heirs. But that was the extent of her knowledge.

            “Well deemed worthy by a few, mostly coerced for the rest.” Iruka said, “As nice as this chat has been, we need to keep moving, so Miss Haruno are you with us or…” He shrugged suggesting she was the one in trouble if she didn’t comply. Sakura smirked. _They’re ballsy, I’ll give ‘em that._ Sakura just smiled and said, “Fine, I’ll listen to your pitch but I’ll decide whether or not I join your…whatever it is you’re selling to me.”

            “YES!!! I knew you’d join! You’re too cool not to! Just wait ‘til you meet everyone else, they’re great! I’m sure you guys will get on, especially you and Shikamaru!-“

            “Naruto!” Iruka whispered in a stern voice, “Keep it down…the townspeople could still be out there. Now c’mon let’s meet up with the others.” Iruka said leading them north.

            Sakura was almost positive they were extremely close to the border between fae and human lands. They had been walking towards an old ruin, an old guard tower it looked like, for a bit when she suddenly felt this overbearing pressure. It felt ancient, it was almost too much for her to handle when Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her further along the path.

            “It starts to feel weird right here doesn’t it?” The blonde asked her. She merely nodded and tried to remove her hand from his only to have his tighten, “It helps the pressure if you have a connection with something alive I think. At least that’s what Iruka told me.” He said smiling. Sakura just looked at him as they trudged along, feeling weird holding another person’s hand. The last time she had done that was when her mother was still alive.

            Coming out of her reverie Sakura realized that the border wall was only a few miles ahead of them. The wall that created the border between human and fae lands it was made of an obsidian stone that had been imbued with magical wards from mages and the Blood Lords from each court, to help keep people out. The wards around Uchiha lands were exceptionally strong which was why Sakura usually avoided the night court all together, opting for an easier access point usually found around summer court. The black wall eerily shone almost like a black snake that was wound across the continent, she shivered, but as they continued heading toward the wall Sakura decided to speak up hoping they hadn’t been complete fools and went into the Uchiha lands. She was good but she seriously doubted she was that good.

            “You guys do know that we’re nearing fae borders right?” Sakura asked

            “Yeah.” Naruto answered her. Sakura ground her teeth.

            “Can I ask why, ya know you being humans and all?”

            “You’ll see.” Naruto said turning around to smirk at her. She rolled her eyes and looked around her again. She did not like how this was developing. Though the Uchiha had a reputation the night court still was a large mystery to most people of even the highest class of fae. The little she did know about it was that it wasn’t a seasonal court, like spring or summer where it was always summer or spring and never changed, instead the night court went through seasons like the rest of the continent and that the Uchiha Blood Line ruled it. And all she knew of the Uchiha, were stories that they held a strong power over the mind, she surmised the blood line was one of daementi but she could never confirm her suspicions being the fact that she had never met an Uchiha. But she had found the most interesting text in an old library that described creatures with the most magnificent powers over the mind a few summers ago when an abnormally obnoxious dawn court fae male thought she couldn’t break into the dawn court, and had decided to make him eat his words.

The only other stories she had heard of their Blood Line was the one during the war. And these she had gotten from her mother. The Uchiha apparently were the reason the humans had won the war. Supposedly, the new Lord had switched sides after his father had fallen in battle by a fellow fae’s sword and so the Uchiha Line had switched sides and worked with the humans and aided the King Hashirama.

This had created a treaty amongst the fae and humans. A peace that was strenuous at times and down right on the verge of breaking in others. To Sakura’s knowledge the newer regime of royalty was not so keen to work with the fae as the older regime had been. And had gone as far as to not renew the treaty created amongst the Uchiha and humans. This of course was all hearsay, just things Sakura had heard amongst the humans. The tensions between the lands had begun to rise and everyone was on edge.

            “WE’RE HERE!” Naruto shouted finally letting go of her hand, when they stopped at a…birch tree?

            “Umm, what?” Sakura said looking at nothing but a grove of birch trees. _What was it with birch trees around this area_? She suddenly saw a shimmer, she squinted to look at the grove better. _Very clever,_ she had to give these humans credit they were devilish.

Here they had siphoned off the magic that maintained the border along the Uchiha lands and created a pocket, which would make them invisible to the humans and make a slight blimp on the border line so that the Uchiha were none the wiser. So she was definitely dealing with at least one mage in this group. No wonder Iruka thought it ok to threaten her even if she was a halfer, the mages could take on most fae, depending on how powerful they were, some could even take on high fae.

            “C’mon! You’ve gotta meet everyone!” Naruto said grabbing her hand again and pulling her into the pocket. On the other side it was still a grove of birch trees but she saw a small camp with three tents. And three other people. Who weren’t all human, _that’s odd_ , she had never heard of humans and halfer’s actually being around each other for more than necessity.

Most halfers were like her and ostracized from either species. Humans were better at tolerating halfers, but only in small doses and usually only if they had some skill or service to offer them, like her hunting. Not many humans made an effort to friend people like her.

            “Jeeze let everyone know you’re here why don’t ya?” said a boy who she could smell was a halfer, and if the smell hadn’t tipped her off she’d be able to tell simply by the look of the boy. He was wild looking, brown hair that looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in weeks, black slits for eyes, pronounced canine teeth, and red fang marks painted on his cheeks, and to top off his ensemble he wore black pants and a black jacket that showed a little of his chest. Along with black boots and _was that a wolf?_ A white canine with brown ears was standing by the boy.

            “Shut up Kiba! What do you know?” Naruto said letting go of her hand and took a swing at the boy, who dodged the attack easily and sidled up closer to her.  

            “Who’s the cute pinky?” The boy, Kiba she supposed, asked while taking a big sniff of the air around her. She grimaced at that little action not liking him being so intrusive of her space when she noticed another boy had gotten out of a tent.

This one was a bit taller than the one in front of her and had brown eyes, dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail, and was that studs in his ears? He was walking towards them with a disgruntled expression on his face suggesting he was not happy that they were there.

            “Who do you think it is you dolt? Its Sakura Haruno, she’s the only pink haired halfling I know of.” The boy with the ponytail said to Kiba.

            “Shove it Shikamaru!” Kiba said to the ponytailed man, who just rolled his eyes at Kiba. That was another reason she usually kept her hair covered. Even if she was a halfer, not a lot of fae had coloring like her. So she was rather distinguishable if she didn’t keep it hidden.

            “So, is she the real deal or what?” Shikamaru asked.

            “Shikamaru, shut it! We haven’t had time to ask her yet.” Naruto said. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and glared at the blonde boy. Sakura, though amused, was getting irritated no one was talking directly to her.

            “So, what’s this big question you guys have to ask me?” Sakura said deciding to get straight to the point.

            “Well, ah, it’s, ummm…” Naruto him-hahed around rubbing the back of his neck when suddenly another male who she hadn’t even sensed before knocked into her.

            “OOF!” Sakura muttered being knocked to the ground.

            “I AM SO EXTREMLY SORRY MY DEAR MAIDEN! I ROCK LEE WILL MAKE SURE TO MAKE UP FOR MY BLUNDER BY TRAINING HARDER!” The aforementioned Rock Lee had bowed down in front of her with his hands out making this proclamation. He had black hair that had been cut in the worst fashion plausible to her, a bowl cut style and had these big round black eyes that were full of…something she couldn’t put her finger on but youthfulness came to mind and all of this was wrapped up in an atrocious green colored pants and shirt that were only offset by a garish blue tie around his waist.  As she had made her observations the boy who had knocked into her had deemed it appropriate to keep screaming at her.

            “Ehhh?” Sakura said trying to remember what the kid said.

            “Give it a rest Lee, if she can’t take a hit from you then she’s really not worth our time now is she?” Kiba said.

            “Oi Kiba that’s not true! She’s part of our group now! We can’t just leave her!” Naruto started shouting at Kiba. The ponytail grumbled something that suspiciously sounded like ‘Troublesome’ and turned around to follow Kiba and Naruto.

            “I am Rock Lee. Do not worry we will not leave you!” The boy who was still bowing in front of her said.

            “Right…” Rock Lee proffered his hand to her rising from his stance. She gladly accepted it. He didn’t look it but he really packed a punch.

            “Are you alright Miss Sakura?”

            “Huh? Oh yeah no problem. I’ve had a lot worse than a bump before trust me. Besides I heal pretty fast as it is...so no worries.” She said smiling to the boy. She was shocked to say the least that this kid was another halfer like herself. Though his smell wasn’t as obvious as Kiba’s it was definitely there. She had caught a whiff of it when he had helped her up.  All of a sudden he was looking at her, like really looking at her?

            “Um, Rock Lee was it? Are you alright?”

            “My goodness you are an angel Miss Sakura! I will forever be at your service!” Lee screamed bowing again and kissing her hand. _EHHH?_ Sakura thought, _where the hell had that come from?_

            “LEE! Come on stop scaring her!” Iruka yelled over to their position since he was sitting around the fire with the other boys.

            “Ah! I am sorry Miss Sakura I did not mean to scare you!”

            “Nah it’s alright…let’s just head over to the fire.” Sakura said walking towards the rest of the group. The boy seemed to follow after her.

            “Hey Sakura sit over here by me!” Naruto said jumping up excited when she neared the fire. She shook her head but decided to oblige him. _He never tires does he?_ Sakura mused. Looking over at Iruka she seemed to have been right because the man looked rather run down but he still smiled, a small smile, whenever he looked at the energetic blonde.

            “So what’s for dinner?” Kiba said.

            “Ah, I was able to find some fish for us tonight.” Lee said picking up a bag he had swung around his waist.

            “Aww man again? Why can’t we find any amazing ramen like they have at the palace?” Naruto grumbled.

            “Naruto we can’t be picky, we don’t have the luxuries out here like we did back at Konoha.” Iruka said taking the fish from Lee and putting a stick through them so as to put the fish over the fire. _Hmm…so they were used to luxury, but how much luxury?_ Sakura thought.

            “Right so while we wait why don’t we explain to you Sakura why it is we sought you out?” Sakura looked at Iruka and merely rose her eyebrow.

            “As you have already guessed we are from the human capital of Konoha. But there was a recent coup in Konoha which has led us out here.” Iruka said. _Well that was extremely anti-climactic. These guys are hiding something._ Sakura thought noticing that they were all pointedly staring at the fire…even Naruto.

            “We are…on a certain type of mission that we believe you and maybe only you could help us on.” Iruka hedged. Sakura looked at Iruka and raised her eyebrow.

            “Get to the point Iruka, lying does not become you.”

            “Well on our travels we heard of a pink-haired hunter that would do any job for any price. So, we have a job for you…” Iruka trailed off looking down at the fire himself seeming to try and muster up the courage to ask her. Sakura counted to three before she lost her temper.

            “So why are you hesitating to ask me?” She ground out.  All the men around her made a noise. Shikamaru sighed and slumped even further which she couldn’t believe was possible. Kiba “harrumphed” and shook his head and stretched out further which allowed his canine to stretch further on his body. _I’m still not sure if that canine is a wolf or a dog._ Lee and Naruto both sighed wistfully and slumped their shoulders at the same time. Even Iruka seemed to slump a little bit. Iruka cleared his throat again and seemed to straighten himself up.

            “Well to be quite honest we have asked a few other…people. And needless to say we have been refused multiple times-“

            “Ask me already. I’m getting tired of you avoiding my question.” Sakura finally said getting more annoyed when Iruka was refusing to tell her why they had sought her out.

            “Alright. Alright. We would like you to lead us into the Uchiha lands and set up a meeting for us.” Iruka finally said.

            “Eh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudo's and comments are much appreciated! Thank you for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the next chapter in my little story. Kind of setting up more chapters, but yeah again i'm sorry with not updating more consistently, just school is crazy and I'm trying to make sure everything is alright!

Sasuke walked over to Gaara after putting on his fighting leathers. Still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he needed to choose one of the three girls in his family’s palace right now.

            “You are still distressed?”

            “Hmm.” Sasuke simply shook his head letting Gaara know that he didn’t want to talk about it. “Where we patrolling?”

            “Not far. Just around the palace.”

            “Tch.” Sasuke followed Gaara to the guard tower that they were to report at. _Patrol my ass. He grabbed the last assignment he could so that we wouldn’t have to hang out with Ino._ Granted he was grateful that Gaara had thought to buy some type of cover up for not hanging out with the females. They arrived at the guard tower, a tall building that favored a pagoda style of architecture, as they checked in and let the guard on duty sign them in, a paper appeared right next to Sasuke’s head. Sasuke took it realizing the missive was from his brother Itachi.

            “New orders for tonight?” Gaara asked.

            “Yeah. Seems there’s been a little blimp in the border. Wants us to check it out.”

            “Indeed. Shall we winnow?”

            “No…apparently Itachi wants us to go on foot.”

            “Foot?”

            “Apparently.” Sasuke said handing the paper over to Gaara so that he could look it over himself. The paper in fact had more details but he did not wish to convey them here in the middle of the guard tower.

            “Uh, Lord Sasuke sir, do not worry we will find someone to replace you on the patrol you were assigned.” The guard who had checked them in said. He nodded and winnowed to his room. Gaara not too far behind him.

His room in the palace had special wards against it so that Sasuke himself could pick and choose who was allowed to winnow into his room. After all, too many would be assassins might just jump on the opportunity to take the next Uchiha heir’s head. He set about to packing for the trip he was about to embark on.

            “So Itachi got you a mission just in time huh?” Kakashi said leaning up against his bedroom door.

            “Hmn.” Sasuke wasn’t surprised to see Kakashi there, to be honest he’d be more surprised if he hadn’t shown up. He could be eerily perceptive, if he had the time for it.

            “Is it true?” Gaara asked Kakashi. Kakashi raised his eyebrow on the one eye that you could see. The other was hidden behind his crazy mound of silver hair and his black headband thought to be for the purpose of keeping hair out of his face, which never seemed to have gotten the memo, forcing the hair over his eye.

            “That the blimps in the border recently could be that of a mage? Which could be potentially dangerous should you guys winnow there? Itachi could just be overly cautious. After all, the border is just a wall, a broken wall that has warding magic on it to help steer a human along a different path or simply get them going in circles. But in my opinion, I believe it to be the doing of a halfling pushing their luck.” Kakashi supposed. “Though never a bad thing to be overly cautious with these things. After all, you wanted to get out of the palace a bit. Here’s your chance.” Kakashi crinkled his eye the way he did when he found something particularly amusing which was usually un-lucky for Sasuke. “Have fun my cute little students.” And with that Kakashi winnowed away to who knows where.

            “Well, we did want to get away.” Sasuke said to Gaara. Who nodded, and walked to his room. They communicated a time to meet out at their usual meeting place. The trip would most likely only take two days but Sasuke had inherited his brother’s over cautiousness and decided to pack for four just in case.

 As he was about to head to the meeting place, he heard a knock on his door. _Who could that be? Anyone who would want to talk to me usually just burst in without ado. Look at Kakashi._ Sasuke thought walking over to his door and opening it. Sasuke’s eyebrows rode high on his forehead because standing in front of him was Hinata Hyuga.

            “Hinata?”

            “Oh, um, h-hello lord…Sasuke.”

            “Can I, uh help you?” Sasuke inquired trying to not make the girl even more uncomfortable. Her light lavender eyes, a Hyuga trait, were darting all over and her cheeks seemed rather red for how chilly this part of the palace was. He didn’t like the heat that much.

            “Oh, no no I just mmm…I thought I should wish you luck on your patrol.” Hinata mumbled.

            “Oh…. thanks, Hinata.” Sasuke said. He had no idea what else to say to this girl. Why make the effort? He didn’t understand. He must’ve had a tell on his face because Hinata spoke up again. _Wow, this is the most I’ve heard this girl talk in, well ever._

            “It’s just….my cousin Neji…I always wished him luck on his patrols as well. I thought you might like it as well. So, ah umm…. then I guess I…will b-b-be going. Goodnight Lord Sasuke.” And with that she dashed off.

            “What did you do to Lady Hyuga?” Sasuke nearly jumped out of his skin. Gaara had the uncanny ability of being able to sneak up on him.

            “I’m not sure.” Sasuke said looking down the hallway Hinata had disappeared down. Sasuke turned around and winnowed to the place outside the palace gate that he and Gaara usually met at if they had a mission to do. Gaara following behind him. They headed northwest to head in the direction of the area of border that needed checked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's chapter 6! it may a bit for chapter 7 because the chapters weren't critiqued for months like the first couple chapters. So i'm apologizing ahead of time because it may be a bit but spring break is soon so hopefully I can write more during that week! Again thank you so much for reading and I love feedback and kudos! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I'm soooo sorry! I know I said I'd try to update more during my spring break and well needless to say I took some much needed time just to relax and focus on myself! But I did at least want to update one more chapter!

            Sakura was still trying to process what Iruka had just asked her. Most people wanted her to keep the fae away from them, not bring them closer. Especially humans of all creatures?

            “So, will you do it Sakura?” Naruto asked her. She turned to look at him and damn her bleeding heart his eyes looked like she was the answer to all his problems. _Fuck me! Why did he have to look at her like that! It wasn’t fair._ Sakura contorted her face into an expression of indecision.

                “I mean you’re so cool and it’s not like we don’t have the money to give you! We have a bunch so you’ll be well compensated…” Naruto trailed off.

Sakura heaved a sigh and got up deciding she needed to pace to think everything over. The thing with this would be trying _not_ to get caught while heading to the Uchiha palace. Hell, she was almost positive they had a tracking spell on their lands should anyone like these idiots try something like this. _Shit! What the hell have I gotten myself into?_

            Wait she hadn’t agreed yet had she? No, but still, and at that she paused in her pacing and glanced back at the group of people who seemed to think she was some type of badass goddess incarnate. Which now that she thought about it, they were saying something weren’t they?

            “Told you guys she wouldn’t be up for it. We just waited another week that we could’ve used to infiltrate the Uchiha lands.” Shikamaru stated.

            “Shut up, Shikiamaru. She never said she wouldn’t do it!” Naruto said, still defending her even when he looked like he had a hint of doubt in his eyes.

            “We were prepared for this Shikamaru, so don’t be too harsh. This is Miss Haruno’s decision, she may have more at stake if she agrees to help us. She is a halfling after all. If I’m correct the full-fledged fae don’t acknowledge them and if they do, they aren’t…extremely kind to them.” Iruka said.

             Kiba snorted at that, seeming to shift closer to his canine. _Fucking hell, her bleeding heart really was going to get her killed one of these days._ Sakura sighed rubbed her face and then headed back to the camp.

            “Alright, I’ll do it.” She said. With those words she had made the entire group look at her with wide eyes. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to actually do it successfully, just so you know. But I’ll try my best. And we’ll do it my way. I know the most about the fae so if anyone has a problem with that they can leave now.” She held her breath waiting for the guys reactions. When Lee, Naruto, and Kiba all lunged at her making her fall over.

            “You’re the best! I knew you were cool! I just didn’t know how cool!”

            “YOU ARE SUCH AN ANGEL I PROMISE I WILL PROTECT YOU MISS SAKURA!”

            “Dude you made Shikiamaru eat his words! I like you already!” They all screamed as they hugged her in the dog pile they had created when lunging at her.  Iruka and Shikamaru simply sat there with smiles on their faces. _Well here goes nothing._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading this far! I know this chapter is shorter but I promise next chapter is a lot more interesting and has everyone meeting...which now you know why I'm taking forever to review it...le sigh! Anyways comments and kudos are welcome!:)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So yeahhhhh....i'm so sorry it took me so long to update! School was crazy and I'm graduating so I was really trying to focus on my capstone (praying and crossing my fingers, hoping it was ok) but I didn't forget about this story I promise! I'm just trying to find the time in my schedule to work it out! Also this chapter started off completely different than what I ended on and with no one reviewing it for me so sorry for any of the mistakes. But I think the changes help develop the plot a little better and develop the characters as well. Especially Sakura, she is achieving the BA level in this story so don't forget that. ANYWAYS, enough of my jabbering enjoy the chapter!

            Sakura woke up with a start, grabbing her dagger on her thigh strap. She had had that nightmare again, the one where she couldn’t move and she simply watched as her mother breathed her last. While she was stuck to the spot on the ground and couldn’t move to help or do anything. Just watch as her whole world came crashing down in garbled, bloodied gasps. She shook her head to disperse the terrible image and forced her breathes from the shallow gasps she was doing now, to slow deep breaths.

Once she got her breathing under control, she opened her eyes. Kiba was sitting by the fire pit, watching the embers. It seemed he was on guard duty at the moment. She wasn’t sure if he had noticed her little panic attack or not but she decided to do her own perimeter search, as a way to both calm her and hopefully distract her thoughts.

            “Relax, if there was anything actually dangerous out there, Akamaru would’ve already pounced on it.” Kiba said staring at her after she turned her head back to him. _Seemed he had noticed._ She tried not to let that bother her. She still wasn’t used to having other people with her.

Being on her own for so long had done a number on her trusting anyone when in a group. And she really didn’t like it when anyone saw her in a compromising position. It was one of the main reasons she always traveled by herself. The only times she ever did join a group was for big hunts, and that was because the pay was good. And even then, she never got herself really involved with the people in any of the groups, less they didn’t come back.

She shook her head again, gripping her dagger a little tighter than before trying to figure out, yet again how her life had taken such a turn. _If only you could see me now Mama…_ She sighed loosening her grip on her dagger and looked back up to see Kiba still staring at her.

            “It’s hard isn’t it?” Kiba asked her, moving his gaze back to the embers in the fire pit.

            “Excuse me?” Sakura asked putting the knife back in its place on her thigh. Not like she needed it now. She moved to her side to try and go back to sleep again. Not that it would likely happen but maybe talking would help lull her back into a light sleep at least.

“Getting used to groups again?” Kiba questioned giving her a pointed stare. “It took me a while too, trust me. I only ever had Akamaru to look out for me before them, ya know?”

“Hmmm, I just like to be by myself mostly.” She stated. Kiba harrumphed and started petting Akamaru.

“Trust me Sakura, no one likes to be on their own. Even if you are the biggest recluse ever known. No one chooses to live life on their own.” She moved to her back looking up at the sky, contemplating his words. She supposed he was right. She was just never really ever…gifted in making friends. Hell, she had even been bullied when she was little. Course that all changed after her mother was taken from this world. She focused more on the sky to stop herself from crying. _Jeeze I’m becoming such a big softie._ She thought, admiring the stars. Luckily Kiba hadn’t seemed to catch her getting choked up and continued talking.

“Look, I know its none of my business, so I won’t push but, you can’t forget that there’s other halfers here. We’ve all got a past, even Lee. But somehow, we’ve made it better, we’ve learned to trust again, we found a family. And to be honest we’re not ones to give up on someone, even if they want us to.” Kiba sighed and must’ve muttered something to Akamaru because he snuffed and gave a little whine as if agreeing with Kiba. Sakura was still looking at the stars so she had an excuse not to meet Kiba’s gaze.

“Just, sorry, I know that was a lot, it’s just we all really like you. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, we got your back.” She chuckled softly. It had been a long time since she had believed in anyone. She wasn’t sure what to expect from this venture but she was starting to think it was a good decision she had decided to help them after all. She smiled, a small smile to the stars again and even though she doubted Kiba could hear her she said, “I just might believe you.”

She was still looking at the stars so she didn’t see the small smile Kiba showed to Akamaru after she said that. He had in fact heard her. He shook his head and looked towards the stars himself just taking in the night.

“Kiba?”

“Hmmm?”

“Make sure to wake Naruto for my guard shift.” Sakura said with a mischievous lilt to her voice. Kiba snorted.

“Of course.” He said with a small chuckle. _Damn, she was definitely the best woman for the job,_ he thought.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking at a map of Trȇ, on a makeshift table that Iruka had made from a log, though crude, was still better than the ground. To Sakura’s surprise the mage in the group was in fact Iruka. _No wonder he thought he could take me before._ She surmised. Still the fourth day of being in his magic bubble, he was still impressing her with his knowledge of magic. She would have to have a little discussion with him to see just what she was dealing with. She decided to start listening to the argument that was happening in front of her though, saving that little task for a later time.

“Ugh, why is this so troublesome?” Shikamaru sighed. Leaning over the table so that he could stretch himself across the table but so that he wouldn’t obscure the map.

“Shikamaru, stop complaining and start helping.” Iruka said.

“Why can’t we just show up at their front door and demand to talk to them?” Naruto asked. Ever the least subtle of the group. Sakura shook her head with a slight smile.

Even though she had been with this group for little less than 4 days, what Naruto said was such a Naruto thing to say.  It was an annoying trait when trying to discuss tactics but, it was one of the qualities she admired most about him. He was always very himself, a trait she wished she had more of, to be honest.

“Because dimwit, we’d be dead before we even made it to the palace.” Kiba said shaking his head.

“Well you don’t know that for sure…besides they might even take us straight to the palace.” Naruto countered.

“As risky as that sounds Naruto may be on the right track.” Sakura stated. A vague plan forming in her head.

“How do you mean?” Iruka asked. Even Shikamaru looked up at her. Squinting at her. She could tell from his gaze he had thought about this before but had deemed it too risky. He was a smart one for sure but so lazy that it didn’t seem to matter how smart he was.

“Well, the whole point of this mission is to talk to Lord Itachi correct?” Vigorous head nods were offered at her question. “The quickest way for that to happen would to be either be caught and sentenced, though that’s too risky in my opinion but, there may be another way.” She summed up.

“Care to enlighten us to this oh so less risky way?” Shikamaru asked glaring at her. She knew it wasn’t because he didn’t like her but because, he was trying to figure out the plan she was formulating.

She gave a brief ‘hmmm’ moving a little further away from the group to start pacing. She always needed to move when she was creating a plan, for some reason it helped her focus on the task and would help her move through the different scenarios. After a while Sakura finally zeroed back in to the group.

“Hey Sakura you wanna come tell these guys why my plan was awesome?” Naruto shouted at her. She rolled her eyes at him.

“I said you were on the right track. That was not a vote of confidence in your plan, silly.” She said coming back to join the conference around the table.

“So, Pinkie what’s the plan?” Kiba asked. She gave him a glare for the rather un-original nickname but decided to start to ask Shikamaru some specifics.

“How many emissary missions where you on before?” Sakura asked. She could here Naruto whispering to Lee about something of ‘how she’d know that?’

“I was on a few.” Shikamaru answered giving her an understanding look.

“Which courts?”

“I was in at the Winter court for a bit and then headed over to the Summer court after that.” He said. “You got someone who can make those passes for the Night court?” She nodded.

“Yeah but he’s back towards the Summer court.” She said.

“You guys really think that’ll work?” Kiba asked. Iruka was looking at them with doubt in his eyes.

“Well to be honest, no. But it’ll get us further into the Night court than most, if we can pull off the emissary ploy.”

“Yeah, that’s great and all but we don’t exactly look like a caravan of emissaries. ‘Specially Lee.” Kiba said. A slight hey could be heard in retaliation for that comment but Kiba acted like he hadn’t heard it. “And to be fair everyone in the courts are on high alert as is. I mean even if we claimed to be emissaries, who would actually be able to vouch for us?”

“I agree with Kiba. Shikamaru and me are the only ones in this group who have ever been on emissary missions before. And none of them have ever involved halfers before, even with my spells I’m not sure I could cover that many scents.” Iruka said crossing his arms across his chest. Sakura smiled at him, having not told them her trump card just yet.

“True, but the guy who I know by the Summer court also has a little remedy for that.” Sakura stated. All the guys stared at her after that. “He used to be a mage, well he still is a mage to be truthful but, he got stripped of his title after he did some, allegedly illicit actions against a few noble women. Sadly, that didn’t stop his lecherous ways and he has a little shop he runs for people such as myself.” She disclosed.

“I still don’t like it Sakura. It’s too risky.” Iruka said.

“Well I agree with Iruka but maybe we can formulate a few more ideas on the road?” Shikamaru answered.

“I think we should still create a rough plan, Shikamaru. Afterall, we need to be as prepared as we can once we meet my contact.” Sakura argued.

“I agree with Sakura. Being prepared is our best option.” Lee stated. Naruto was nodding in agreement with Lee when he suddenly perked up like he had just thought of some ingenious plan.

            “Well what about a hole in that big wall back there? Aren’t there like a bunch of ‘em in that thing?” Naruto asked throwing his thumb back towards the glistening obsidian.

            “As much as I wish that were plausible, I doubt the Uchiha’s let their wall suffer any damage. After all they are some of the most powerful fae in existence.” Iruka said not looking up from the map. Naruto slumped after hearing that. Sakura smiled and shook her head, “Look I know this isn’t airtight but I do know a few holes by the Summer court, we could start from there but it’s not advisory. Most fae don’t even get access to the Night court unless of course they are high fae, and that is seldom at best.” She said, looking down at the map noticing a little curvy squiggle on the map, “What’s that?”

Iruka looked down to where she had pointed. “It’s just an old trail by the Summer court, I believe the person who made this map was quite the explorer. But I’m not sure if even she went down there.”

            “Why’s that?” Sakura asked, remembering a map that her mother had in their house.

            “She said it was a bad part of the land. That it was all twisty and when she had taken it she had nearly died like twenty times in one night.” Lee said crossing his arms around himself after he noticed the squiggle she had pointed out, “It was a wonder she even made it out of there, let alone went down it again.”

            “Yeah…but she also wasn’t me.” Sakura said, thinking back to the little poem her mother had told her a long time ago when she had asked about the map on their wall. The map that was supposedly her father’s map and how he had traveled between the fae and human lands.

 

 

>             _There once was a girl on a tale, a quest if you will, she took a trail that was all but swept and low she tried to force the world to her behest it would not last. Once she had wept and pressed her hands to the earth again and again did she finally fall to her knees to accept the fate that her tale would end, but as she accepted the turn of events the boughs and the burrows decided to aid the pitiful girl for loath she was to admit she had become a part of the world._

Though she had never understood the little poem when she had been younger her mother brought it up quite a bit when she had always told her mother that she would leave their house and be an adventurer.  At the time her mother didn’t know that she was getting bullied by the other children in the village, which was why she had always wanted to leave, but it always had stuck with her when facing a new dilemma. Her mother had always said she would understand it when she got older, and to be honest she still didn’t fully understand the poem but it was a way for her to remember to move what she could and usually the world would do the rest. Rather ironic considering her occupation, but it was something at least.

            “You know something we don’t Pinkie?” Kiba asked.

            “Hmmm, maybe but we’ll have to make another pit stop at this lake here.” She said pointing to where she had buried all the stuff she could salvage from her house after the fire. It wasn’t far from the town Jiraya based his business out of.

            “The Lake of Mirrors…what’s so important about that place? Isn’t it just a sort of wasteland?” Naruto asked realizing where they were going.

            “Sort of, but we’ll need something from there before we journey to the Night court.” Sakura said.

            “Alright sounds like we got a plan, let’s start heading out within the hour,” Iruka said, clapping his hands together. Ending the meeting, “No sense in wasting daylight.”  The rest of the group headed to their individual tents, starting to take them down. She had been sleeping outside by the fire so she really didn’t have much to pack. Which was the perfect opportunity to start asking Iruka questions.

“Hey Iruka need some help?” Sakura asked. Iruka nodded and waved her over. She headed over to the tent and started picking up the stakes in the ground.

“So what is it you want to ask?” Iruka queried, giving Sakura a pointed look.

“That obvious huh?” She said. He simply gave her a smile, “When you know what to look for. So what does the great Sakura want from this old mage?”

“Iruka stop you’re barely thirty.” She said giving him a big grin. He was always like this with everyone in the group. Like a mentor, even to her who had just joined the group. He gave her a light chuckle in response to her grin.

“So what’s up?”

 Sakura inhaled, focusing on the major question she had, “Why did you need me? After all you’re this great sanctioned mage, why would you need me? A huntress and a huntress of moral ambiguity to top it off?” He didn’t answer her right away, simply going about packing up the tent. When he finally did answer her she was moving towards him, helping him fold the tent itself.

“I may be a sanctioned mage, but I am also, an exiled mage. Mage’s such as my skill set work better in groups, but the rest of my group or team if you will wasn’t keen on my political choices.”

“You mean the fact that you choose Naruto’s family instead of the new guy?” Sakura questioned.

“Indeed,” He exhaled his breath with that, looking at her as if she was the answer to the question he was asking in his head, “Not many at the court saw Naruto as a viable candidate for the throne. Even though he was the legitimate heir, his father had another marriage after Naruto’s mother passed and even though she wasn’t the first queen, she also had a son. A son that won many of the court over. Either through pretty words, or grand gestures of ‘loyalty’ he gained favor. And even if Naruto’s father passed away shortly after marrying the new queen, she was still the legitimate regent by our law and made sure to help her son gain favor.”

            “So the factions started to split, the legitimate heir, Naruto, or the son of the queen at present. He’s had to overcome a lot of prejudice for simply being himself, but he’ll make a good king. He’s honorable, true to his word, smart when he allows himself to be, and a kind-hearted person. All the things that matter when ruling.” Iruka said packing away the tent.

            “All the things that make it hard to rule as well.” Sakura said. Iruka looked up at her, searching her eyes for an answer she was not willing to give. She broke eye contact from him and looked at the blonde in question. “I believe he is all those things you said but why does he need help from the Uchiha? It’s his throne why doesn’t he just take it back?”

            “We talked about it, but he said if he were to unite the human world he might as well unite the whole world before he takes the throne back. After all it was the one thing his opponent didn’t have on him. Naruto has always wanted to make this happen.” Iruka said standing up.

“Why the Uchiha though? Isn’t it a little problematic that he’s asking the most dangerous fae Blood Line for help?” Sakura asked. Iruka shook his head at her questions and said, “That’s a tale Naruto has to tell you himself. I’m not sure if even I understand it completely. But I am willing to help him.”

He walked away from her to talk to Shikamaru. She looked back at Naruto and saw him struggling with folding his tent. She walked over to him. “You need some help?”

“Ah-um, yeah could you?” He questioned, holding the ball of fabric out to her. She giggled and made him grab the two ends of the tent that would help her fold it. “Here just hold these for me and I’ll show you how to fold a tent.” She said starting the process.

“Yeah, Iruka is always yelling at me, saying that I should know this by now.” He said grinning. She smiled at him, “You’re really, elegant you know that Sakura?” She jerked her head up to look at him again. Wondering where he was going with that statement.  

“I don’t mean it as a bad thing, it’s just, I don’t know, you seem so confident all the time. It’s kind of nice to just watch you do things, just because you’ll do them in a pretty way.” He said, standing there turning his head away from her. She noticed the red tint of his ears and smiled. _He was such a goof._

“Thanks, I learned most of it from my mom actually.” She said folding the last bit of the tent. She was closer to him now so he turned towards her.

“Oh, she must’ve been really elegant than. If she was your mom.”

“She was, she had a certain peace about her, I guess. She was a healer so she always seemed to move with a purpose. As if the world moved with her.” She said with a small smile. She missed watching her mother make potions, powders and healing creams. It was beautiful, in the simplicity of it. It was how she memorized what her mother taught her.

Shaking herself out of her reverie she gave Naruto a serious look, “Don’t forget what I taught you my young student.” The seriousness was broken by the grin that was cracking her face. Naruto laughed and bowed saying, “Yes oh great teacher.” Making them have a giggle fit.

Once everything was packed, Iruka told everyone to meet him outside of the bubble. The group gathered around the entrance to the bubble, waiting for Iruka to finish whatever spells he needed to close the bubble. He backed out of the entrance with a purple stone in his hand saying the words “Parf Edhellen.”

“Alright that should do it.” Iruka said pocketing the stone. Sakura nodded at him deciding to start the group on the path back to the Lake of Mirrors. When a breeze grazed Sakura, she didn’t think of it at first but when she suddenly got a chill she stopped. Being a huntress she had learned early on to trust the world around her for signs of danger. She looked behind her in the grove of trees. The birds and forest animals were still chattering away, but it was unusually loud for said animals. She had been around here for four days to know the basic hum of activity around her. They were waiting for something.

“RUN!” She yelled at the group noticing the shadow that crisscrossed over the grove. They were being followed and by high fae no less. She made sure everyone was in front of her before she started shooting her arrows at the shadow. It shimmered and a tall, raven-haired fae male came out of the shadow grabbing her arrow out of mid-air. _Shitshitshitshitshit_ was all Sakura could think as she turned around and started running towards the rest of the group. She could see them running but they weren’t running fast enough to get away from their pursuer. She looked back to see where the fae was. He wasn’t there. She turned back around and veered to the left. Just as she thought, the fae had been in front of her waiting for her to turn around. She jumped up on to a tree hoping to gain some leverage.

She had lost sight of her group.

When three black flames came chasing after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are welcome! But its gonna get more juicy from here on out! I really wanted to flesh out the characters a tad bit more before the story progressed! I hope i did a good job! But the poem was a legit spur of the moment thing i made up while i was writing this. It's got a little obscure meaning to the plot line but don't read too much into it since I'm not sure if it'll be more of a plot line devise or not! But again thanks for reading and I'll hopefully have the next chapter updated a LOT sooner than before!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so i've been working on this relentlessly! Got the writing bug, now that i don't have papers to write. And also, i'm getting my translations from Google so Hoshi is supposedly stars in japanese...i hope. At least that's what it's suppose to mean! Sorry if this is actually not the case! You'll understand once you read! :)

            Sakura ran to the right of the branch she was on and jumped up onto a higher branch to evade the flames the raven-haired male had thrown at her. She ran further out on the branch and jumped to another tree.

She landed deftly on the branch she had been aiming for and started to jump from branch to branch. Weaving her way in and out of the trees in hopes that her pursuer wouldn’t be able to follow. Sadly, that was too much to hope for in her run of bad luck.

 The flames continued to come after her, luckily it seemed the flames didn’t affect the trees but she was willing to bet they’d do a number on her.

She was getting more and more frustrated as she kept evading. She wanted to find Naruto and the gang but every time she got a little further ahead to look, the flames came after her again, so she had to evade and run further away from the path, making her lose the direction she was heading.

Until she heard rapids.

Indicating that the Hoshi River was somewhere to her right. It was considered a sacred river, one that not many used to fish on, to say the least. It was a volatile force of nature at the best of times, with its interesting inhabitants and annoying flooding habits, it was definitely a wonder.

_A wonder for how the hell did I get so off track!_  The fae male had chased her farther off the route than she had realized. _Shit, where are they?_

She was making a jump to a bigger tree when the male decided to switch it up and let loose two daggers. She evaded the first one, but as she turned to evade that dagger the second one connected with her shoulder.

 Knocking her off balance and making her fall from a twenty-foot drop.

She bounced off a few branches until she fell to the forest floor with a loud crack. Of course, she couldn’t land on a nice, soft, pillow of leaves but instead she landed on top of a rotten log.

            “Owwww…”She moaned. The dagger was still in her shoulder, not to mention she had about half the twigs of the forest in her hair. She cursed sitting up, causing her to feel all the nicks and bruises she just obtained, and took a look at her most pressing wound.

It was bleeding profusely, and seemed to have a black substance mixed in with it. Or she was just losing her eyesight. She cursed again, looking around her to see where she landed.

She was…in the forest. But the Hoshi River was louder. _Fucking hell, she was so lost._

  She moved to get up when the fae male appeared before her throwing his fist towards her injured shoulder. She rolled to the left, trying to spare her shoulder anymore pain.

            “What the hell jackass!” Sakura shouted at him, trying to gain her bearings again. He merely looked over at her and flashed so that he was standing beside her. _Not again!_ Sakura thought, throwing her body back so that her good arm would stop his jab.

Sakura grabbed her dagger at her thigh and threw it at him, the throw wasn’t all that bad for being thrown by a wounded arm, but allowed her assailant to avoid the dagger.

Still it made his grip on her lessen, and she ripped her arm out of his grasp and started running away from him. He flashed in front of her this time and she decided to just go with it and run straight into him.

No one could deny how bullheaded she could be.

He careened back and growled when she connected with him. Making them both fall and roll in a tangle of limbs and shouted curses.

Sakura’s luck was just running out, because when they stopped rolling the male was on top of her, straddling her legs and holding her wrists.

            “What the hell was that?” He snarled at her. Sakura winced at the hold on her wrists. Making the wound on her shoulder tear a little more.

 She looked up and had to hold back her gasp of surprise. She had seen the fae male of course, but she hadn’t gotten a real good look at his face, ya know from all the running away.

 And what she was seeing was definitely the most beautiful male she had ever set eyes upon.

 He was raven-haired obviously, but his eyes were twin pools of shining obsidian, cheekbones that seemed to catch the light on their own and a jawline that could cut a girl’s heart if she let him. And that mouth, it was like it was asking to be devoured.

            “You done ogling?” He asked her. She could feel the blush creeping up her body but refused to be cowed by his words.

            “You done ripping open my shoulder anymore?” she growled back. His eyes darted to the wound on her shoulder.

            “If you hadn’t tackled me, maybe I wouldn’t have to have put you in such a position.” She rolled her eyes at him and was about to ask him to get off her when he said, “No I am not going to release you. You’re my prisoner after all.” She looked at him again, and really looked at him. _Shit, he’s a fucking Uchiha._

            “Just now coming to that conclusion.” He stated drolly. She huffed. Of course he could read her thoughts. She had always suspected the mind control wasn’t fabled.

 She had read another book about the daementi that Jiraya had at his house. Apparently to avoid the mind control one needed to build up a mind wall. She imposed her wall hoping she had cut off her thoughts quickly enough.  

            “Hmm, a mouse with more tricks.” He said.

            “A MOUSE!” She shouted back at him. _Alright that’s it!_ Sakura melted back into the forest floor as the male came closer, _most likely to say something witty,_ she was sure, except he never got the chance.

She slammed her head into his own and used that momentum to throw him off her. _Huh, apparently the wall worked._

She scrambled up, the blood loss was really taking a toll on her. She was getting dizzier by the second and the more the world spun she was almost certain the blade was laced with poison. She usually didn’t get affected this badly by a small little cut. Plus she had remembered seeing a black inky substance mixed with her blood beforehand.

She shook her head again to push through the mounting nausea, and took off running towards the trees again. Sakura had gotten a few feet when the Uchiha struck again.

Only this time he seemed to really be pissed off at her. She turned towards him when she felt the oppressive amount of power coming off of him in waves.  

It was like he was commanding the night sky to roll off of him and cause nothing but darkness. Sakura knew she should run but she was hypnotized by it, by him, by the feeling of wanting to see what this power would do to her, and soon even Sakura’s fae eyes couldn’t see.

It was completely black; the only reason she knew she was actually alive was that her own breath was coming out in gasps and her shoulder was still throbbing. _This, this was a high fae’s power._

“You are a prisoner, and you are coming back with me.” The Uchiha’s deep voice resonated all around her. Disoriented as Sakura was, she couldn’t ignore the want to slap that beautiful face for calling her a prisoner.

“So, I’m a prisoner even though I haven’t done anything to justify being imprisoned?” She retorted.

“Were you not with the group of…people, syphoning off the magic to the wall?” He asked

“And that justifies imprisoning people?” She inquired, still trying to move, somewhere.

“It is forbidden.” He reasoned. She rolled her eyes, even if he couldn’t see her, the man was about as dumb as he was pretty.

“Yeah and you put signs up and everything to dissuade that type of behavior, ya jerkwads.” She snapped back. She felt, rather than saw his irritation. She started giggling to herself.

“It was decided even before you were born that the Uchiha lands and its border lands would only allow certain types of magic. I’m sorry you weren’t there for the signing of that declaration but you are all of what, 22? Whereas, I was actually there to witness it being signed.”

“Oh ho ho, sorry oh great ancient one that I wasn’t born earlier. Excuse me for that slight, if it pleases milord, I’ll make sure my parents met earlier!” She shouted back at him. She seriously needed to find her way out of this black hole and find those dumbasses. Not only was she pissing off this Uchiha, but she was getting pissed off at him.

“Just shut up and come back to the palace with me.” The male shouted by her ear. Sakura decided it was now or never and ran for it.

“It’s pointless to run. I will not harm you, but I need you to stop fighting me.” He grounded out.

“Yeah, and if I believed every man that came after me, I’d be a damn corpse.” Sakura countered, continuing to run. She didn’t know what he had to say to that but just then she must’ve caught herself on a rock, and tripped and fell. _Son of a bitch_ , her luck was really running out.

“I give you my promise that you will not be injured should you surrender.”

 Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes again. _Damn fae male and his deep resonating voice making her want to do just that._ Sakura groaned and got on her hands and knees.

_Or maybe she just wasn’t being imaginative enough._ Even though she couldn’t see, she could still feel, and what she felt right now was grass and dirt. She wished she had a better plan at this point but she had run out of options.

“Yeah no offense Uchiha, but a promise really don’t mean a lot to someone like me.” And with that she lifted her good arm back and focused all of her strength in her fist, and punched the ground.

The ground started to shake and the darkness started to recede. Sakura was huffing, the wound in her shoulder was doing a number on her and it had been a miracle she still had that much strength left.

She looked up and could see the Uchiha racing for her, which confused her, he was her enemy after all. And then a shock of blonde was tackling the male.

When rocks came into her view suddenly, she realized she was falling, she acknowledged half way down the cliff that the spot she had struck had, in fact been on top of a cliff, causing the ground beneath her feet to give away.

Plummeting her into the Hoshi River.

As Sakura came to all of these conclusions, she was pulled under the water and immersed in the icy, dark depths of the river. Sakura struggled to move reaching out towards the light of the surface when the current took her and she was enveloped in complete darkness. 

* * *

 

Sasuke realized too late that the halfer had strength and what she planned on using that strength for, when he felt the ground rumble.

The fact that the girl had had managed to block him out of her head and then surprise him was a feat in of itself.  

He stopped the darkness rolling off of him, but just as he was about to jump and get some air to reach her, he got slammed by a body.

_What the hell?_ He rolled on the ground again, grabbing onto the thing falling on top of him. He threw the thing away from him trying to reach the girl again when he got hit again from behind.

            “Where’s Sakura?!” The body shouted.

 Here it was a man, a human man. _Well that’s a bit shocking._ Not a lot of humans could get the drop on Sasuke, in fact he knew that no human had ever gotten the better of him. He dodged the next attack from the male, but just barely. _He can winnow._ Sasuke swore, realizing he was facing against the human king. 

            “I SAID WHERE’S SAKURA!” The human yelled at him again. Winnowing in front of him and threw a blind jab at Sasuke.

Sasuke avoided the punch with his fae swiftness and threw a kick at the boy’s legs. The boy flipped back and threw a few of his kunai at Sasuke.

Sasuke evaded the flying projectiles and decided to get the human king off his back, “If you are looking for that pink halfer, she fell over that cliff behind you.” The blonde gave him a piercing glare and winnowed to the spot he had just seen the pink haired girl. 

Sasuke sighed, realizing the human was going to jump in after her. He flashed over just as the human leaped, grabbing him by the shirt and pulled him back.

“What the hell, bastard! We need to go in after her! Let me go.” The blonde shouted at him as he wrestled him.

“Look even I would have trouble in those waters, let alone a human boy. Just calm down and let me-“, the human king socked him right in the nose.

_Damn these people, that’s twice now that I’ve been either hit or knocked down by these assholes._ Sasuke grunted but didn’t let go of the boy. Even if he was throwing himself towards the edge of the new line of the cliff. The pink halfer had really done a number on the cliff side.

“Let me go!! I said I’d have her back! I need to go in after her! She’s part of our group!” The blonde was still yelling at him as well as trying to wrestle himself free. Sasuke decided his best bet would to be knock the kid out.

Besides, Sasuke himself wanted to go find the girl but he couldn’t with this extra weight.

He grabbed the human and forced him to look him in the eye, causing the man to instantly collapse. Sasuke left him there and opened up his connection with Gaara. _How’d you do?_ It took Gaara a little while to respond, allowing Sasuke to continue to look around for the pink-haired halfer.

He had started opening his mind to his surroundings, looking for a human presence when Gaara replied. _I have knocked out the final member of the group. Though I do believe one of the members disappeared during the middle of my standoff._  

Sasuke looked back at the blonde. _Yeah, he made his way to me. He’s knocked out, but the girl I was chasing fell into the Hoshi River. I’ll send you my location, but I’m gonna fly over the river see if I can find her._

Sasuke heard a grunt from the other end. _What Gaara?_ The man waited two heartbeats before he responded. _Are you sure that’s the best idea my lord? That river is known for its treacherous waters. The girl is most likely dead._  

Sasuke sighed at that, finding dread in the truth of that statement. He shook himself not understanding his grief and took the glamour off of his wings. _Either way I’m going. Even if she is gone, her body deserves a proper burial._ The other fae responded with a simple, _as you wish._

Sasuke gave his position to Gaara, so he could come pick up the blonde and winnow the rest of the group back to the Uchiha palace.

Sasuke grabbed the blonde and dragged him further away from the edge so he didn’t fall in. _Don’t want to be the reason two people are dead._ Sasuke didn’t like death even though he knew it was a fact of life. Growing up during the war had caused him to have a distaste for the killing of others.  

He opened up his senses to hopefully aid him in finding the pink halfer and spread his wings to get the feel of the air current. Sasuke pinned his wings back to himself and ran to the edge of the cliff and jumped off. He started plummeting and then spread his wings, drifting back up to glide above the river.

Gliding over the river, Sasuke stretched his senses and was still not picking up anything resembling a human or fae. _Either she’s really good at hiding or she is dead and is stuck on a log which is holding her under. Or something grabbed her body and is eating it._ Sasuke grimaced at that last thought and veered to the left following the river’s path.

 The Hoshi River was known for how violent its currents could be and the life in it. It was considered sacred because of how fertile it made the lands around it. That reason alone was why many of the settlements were around the river.

Sasuke followed it for a few more miles, and still hadn’t found the girl. She had been nursing that wound to her shoulder, which wouldn’t have affected a halfer too much except his daggers were always laced with poison.

He recalled the girl underneath him after she had tackled him, still bearing her teeth at him even though she was injured and was sorely out matched. The girl had definitely been a fighter.

 And her coloring, it was unique. Almost ethereal. And when her jade eyes had looked him over well, he had almost smiled at her, just to see what her dirty mind would come up with.

_Tch, focus Uchiha!_ Sasuke decided to start diving to see if he could find her.

The water was fucking cold. He hadn’t expected it to be that cold, still it helped him focus on the task at hand. He opened his senses some more once underneath, only sensing fish. He swam back up to the surface. And used some of his magic to propel himself out of the water.

 He did this a few more times, following the current of the river and each time came up empty handed. _What the hell, the damn girl was annoying even when dead!_ Sasuke thought.

He must’ve been out there for longer than he realized, because he started shivering and Gaara decided to check in on him. _My Lord, I know you may feel responsible for that girl but your brother requests your presence back here immediately._ Sasuke was still under the water when his friend contacted him.

He sent back a quick ok and was about to jump back up into the air when he saw a flicker of light under the water. He swam over towards the flicker. Here it was his dagger, stuck between a few rocks. He grabbed it and swam back up to get a breath.

He propelled himself in the air again and flew a few feet further down the river. Right when he was about to dive again he saw the girl’s jacket, but no girl. He grabbed the jacket, sending it to his room with his magic and dove underneath the water again. He turned over a few rocks but he still had no sense of the halfer.

_Brother dear, I would really like to understand why I have the human king and entourage in our dungeon at the moment._ Sasuke growled back at his brother. He’d get yelled at for that later. He swam further down and found a pack stuck on a log.

As Sasuke went to retrieve it, the log moved. _Shit._ Sasuke thought, seeing that it was a giant eel. They were one of the reasons the Hoshi River was called the Hoshi River. They were huge and could conduct electricity when threatened. Not to mention they had gigantic teeth and were faster than hell under water.

Sasuke ground his teeth, realizing the eel still had the girl’s pack. He stilled, reaching out with his mind to the eel. Animals could communicate, though in different ways than humans. He usually was sent flashes of what they had just saw and sent impressions of the four basic senses. And this eel had just seen a pink blob suspended in the water. And the impression Sasuke was sent was one of hunger.

Sasuke was blinded by the rage he felt at the realization that the girl had most likely gotten eaten by the eel and it had all been because he had hit her with his dagger.

_Not only had she been stubborn as hell, and refused to let him take her back, ALIVE, but she had gotten herself killed because of her bullheaded bullshit!_ As his fury built up, Sasuke brought his fists up to his head and started screaming. _He had to get it out, he had to get it out…_

He lashed out with his power blindly.

_Sasuke, you need to come back._ Itachi’s calming voice invaded his mind. Sasuke looked up from his fists, breathing heavily. He had caused such a force that where he had been under water before, he was now standing on rocks. The entire area had logs and rocks blown all over with water sprayed everywhere, and the eel itself was in pieces all around him.

At his feet was her pack, completely intact. Sasuke reached down and grabbed it, putting it over his shoulder. He opened up his wings and tore off into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love hearing from you guys so please leave comments! I like to know what you guys think and if you are enjoying it or not! But anyways thanks for reading! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sooo, yeah I got such bad writer's block trying to write this chapter! I literally wrote it, rewrote, and rewrote, it was like 5 times til I finally got it to how I wanted it! Kakashi's POV was super harder than I thought it would be and the IRL happened and I just kept like not wanting to write because I had no ideas. It was just yeahhh I suck i'm sorry! Hopefully from here on out I can get update a little sooner than before! I keep promising you guys this and everytime I keep missing it! Sorry!! Heh anyways enough of my babbling! Enjoy the next chapter in The Huntress! :)

* * *

Kakashi had been having a lovely day. His cute little student was out on a mission, so he could lounge a bit with Sasuke being away.

And since Sasuke was one of the few who would consider bothering him, he could relax knowing no one else would likely do that very thing.

He was sitting in his favorite spot in the Uchiha gardens, reading his copy of _Icha Icha Tactics_ and had just started his favorite chapter, making himself comfortable in his spot since he’d most likely read the whole book again.  

When he had just gotten to the point in the chapter that always left him a blushing mess a missive from Itachi popped up next to him.

He gave it a glare. He really wanted to relax for the next few days, especially since Sasuke was gone. He kept on glaring at the offensive piece of paper wondering how to go about his escape.

He tucked _Icha Icha_ back into its designated spot in his pocket and winnowed to his room. Hoping that Itachi wouldn’t be paying attention and forget to track his presence. He had managed it once before and that was only because he had picked the most obscene place to hide.

Sasuke’s room. Needless to say, it did not end well for the renowned Captain of the Anbu Black Ops.

He decided his room would be the most logical choice to stall for a few hours, since he had wards up for such messages, though he doubted Itachi would even sweat trying to break through said wards.

Nonetheless, once inside his room, he made sure to lower his magic signature and take up his favorite spot in the whole palace, the bay window overlooking the gardens.

He had been given this room for the specific reason that it was directly in front of the Uchiha gardens, which held very secret Night court treasures. But nonetheless, he enjoyed the view even if it came with constant guard duty.

He settled in to his perch and opened up to where he had left off in _Icha Icha…_

_She arose from the bath, hearing the clamoring of guards and the such outside, only she didn’t realize she had an audience, Hajime watches as she arises with only her long beautiful hair to cover her perky…._

The missive plops on his head this time.

Kakashi sighs, _So much for relaxing._

He opens the missive glancing over the more important details of the missive. Kakashi sighs again. _I really miss the days when those two worshipped my very being. Le sigh….might as well make my way over._ Kakashi gets up from his seat and packs the essentials for the trip making sure he has his precious book with him as well.

He winnows to Itachi’s office, warded so that only Sasuke, Shisui, Izumi and himself could winnow directly in and out of the room. He walks towards the Blood Lord sitting at his desk, who has yet to look up from perusing over his papers.

 Kakashi also notes that Izumi and Shisui, Itachi’s two advisors are nowhere to be seen.

“Where are your two shadows?” Kakashi asks.

“Hmm, off causing trouble no doubt. Well one of them is, the other is most likely trying to stop his trouble.” Itachi answered, looking up from his papers, “I expected you an hour later. Porn not as interesting to you anymore, Sensei?”

_Ever the polite brother. Even if he was bashing his old sensei._

Kakashi gave him his eye-crinkling smile, “Not at all, but seeing as one of my previous students keeps bothering me, I couldn’t immerse myself as I would like.” Itachi chuckled and shook his head.

“You never change, Sensei.” He snickered. Always finding his old Sensei’s addiction to porn a hilarious notion.

“Oh, you’d be surprised how much I’ve changed. Nonetheless, where am I to make contact?” Kakashi queried. Even though Itachi’s office was also, warded against eavesdropping spies and the like, Kakashi kept it brief, not wanting to risk the possibility. Especially with this sensitive mission.

“I’ve made it so that it will take you directly to the meeting spot, you’ll know as soon as you arrive where it is.” Itachi answered, rummaging around in his desk draw and handing Kakashi a small pebble sized crystal, in a deep blue hue, “You remember the words?”

“Of course,” Kakashi said, taking the crystal from the Blood Lord.

“Just be careful Sensei, Danzo’s spies are everywhere, we need a win.” Itachi states in his Blood Lord voice. Kakashi nods his head and winnows to the gardens.

Kakashi arrives at his favorite little spot by the koi fish pond and looks out over the garden trying to make out in this abundance of beautiful flowers where to find the specific flower he needs to start his mission.

The flower is Meadowsweet, a perennial with large sprays of small, deep pink flowers, complemented by their deep green leaves on the stems. The man who created this secret path was known to be partial to the color pink, not just because he had a head of hair colored the rose tint.

Kakashi bowed his head and shook it remembering the tales of the ‘Pink Titan’.

As he started walking through the garden keeping an eye out for the pink flowers, he remembered the tales of Kizashi, when he was a boy, told to him by his father. His father had been one of the few privileged to actually meet the man, when Itachi’s father had been Blood Lord and commissioned him for a project.

Kakashi’s father had always described the man as a mischievous but loyal man. He was known to destroy entire continents if he so wished, but with that incredible might he also had an understanding of when to wield that power.

It was why his father had admired the man so much. Kakashi shook his head, the ‘Pink Titan’ hadn’t been heard from since that time he graced the Night Court. There were whisperings of course but nothing concrete.

Just as he started to contemplate that bit of the tale, he came upon the Meadowsweet flower. The very flower he was looking for. It was also, the marker for the entrance to the secret path.

Kizashi had designed this specific path to move about the Uchiha gardens, making sure that only the people who knew what flower to look for, would be the ones that could find the entrance.

Kakashi bent down looking as if he was merely admiring the flowers, but if one looked a little bit behind the flowers, that decided to be in front of a disc of a garden stone this time, they would come across a beautiful carving, in the middle of the disc.

It had beautiful loops surrounding the very small, and delicately carved fae door. He moved closer to the carving and put his hand over it and whispered, “Mel-lön”. The word for friend in ancient fae.

The door started to glow and Kakashi held his breath and closed his eyes, and allowed the magic to take the shape it needed to.

Kakashi let out the breath he had been holding and opened his eyes. He was standing before a giant cherry blossom tree. The tree itself was in the middle of a circular stone platform.

The cave-like structure that he was in had vaulted ceilings and beautifully carved arches that had vines and flowers wrapping around them.

 The arches themselves were doorways leading to unknown destinations, each of these archways had stone steps that led up to the bottom of the elegant arches.

All of the steps were covered in moss and pink flower petals from the cherry blossom tree. _Yet another pink ornament for the Titan._  Kakashi thought wryly.

 Each archway was connected to the middle platform by a stone bridge, since the entire platform was surrounded by a pool of water, fed by a small waterfall behind the cherry blossom tree.

 Kakashi gave the place an appreciative gaze and smiled to himself because this place never not impressed him. Every damn time he came here, it took his breathe away.

 This alone truly made Kakashi respect the fae male as the ‘Pink Titan’ for the simple fact he was able to create such beauty was an amazing thing.

_Well no time like the present._

Kakashi pulled the blue crystal out of his pocket and uttered another string of ancient fae words, “Rahta tendon licuma”, a rough translation of the words was ‘ _reach for the lighted path_ ’.

The crystal began to glow blue and the cherry blossom tree’s branches began to sway to an unknown breeze. The tree was the real guide to picking the right path, with this breeze the branches would sway to the archway that would lead the traveler to the right door.

The branches were directing Kakashi to the archway to his farthest left, it of course had the most moss on it and the water seemed to get choppy around this particular bridge. _The door must lead, or be near a rough body of water._

He made sure to take care walking over the bridge, he didn’t want to make a fool of himself and slip. He looked up though to admire this particular arch, which was covered in Wisteria. The pale purple flower was abundant and nearly covered up the entire archway so that you could hardly see the stone carvings underneath the plant.

He took a few moments to admire the flowers and finally decided to step through the door.  It was a rather weird feeling traveling this way, almost as if you were stepping through a very viscous liquid.

Kakashi stepped out in a grove of trees. Birch trees no less, their yellow leaves creating a striking color contrast against the white bark of the tree. Kakashi took a deep breathe admiring the view as well as catching his breath from the travel of the archway. He glanced back making sure that the passageway was gone and took a few steps around the grove to look for his contact.

Kakashi finally glimpses a young woman sitting on a log with another female in front of him and a little to his left. As he walks over, he recognizes the build of the first young woman.

This woman looks up once she notices him walking towards her. She was a human, with brown hair that was always up in two buns on her head with eyes that matched her brown hair. She was of a medium build and always carried around two axes at her hips.

She got up from her spot on the log as he got closer. Kakashi gave his customary greeting of a raised hand and a small, “Yo,” with is eye crinkling smile.

“Hey, Kakashi.” TenTen greeted back. As he got closer, he realized that he miscalculated his previous statement of two woman. In fact, he recognized the person with her rather well.

Considering it was a fae male and his cousin was staying at the place he had just left. Light lilac eyes settled on him, as he stopped walking. Eyes that were supposed to have been shut forever based on previous reports from the Winter court.

“Well Neji, long time no see.” Kakashi said putting his hands in his pockets.

“Lord Kakashi.” The fae male acknowledged him, still sitting on the log.

“Mah, Neji you know I don’t like such formalities. Kakashi will do just fine for me. Or Sensei.” He said smiling at the missing Hyuga. He was rather shocked Itachi allowed Neji to join their little revolution. Even if he was an amazing fighter, his loyalties had always been dubious to Kakashi. But he trusted Itachi’s opinion on the matter.

TenTen looked over at the young fae male as he got up and walked towards them. _Hmmm…well that’s an interesting development._ Kakashi thought, realizing that there may be a reason for the young Hyuga’s disappearance, especially if associations with a human were to be involved.

“What news from the human kingdom, TenTen.” Kakashi asked, deciding to start official business.

“Not good I’m afraid. Kabuto has completely taken over the court. Naruto is nowhere to be found, presumed dead, and what little allies we did have to our cause in the court have either gone underground or been incarcerated.” TenTen finished grimly.

“I am afraid my report is just as grim. Many of the courts in the fae world do not wish to push Danzo out of his position, hoping to avoid out right war. They’d rather wait, as the fae have always done until the time is to dire for us to actually act.” Neji said. The two both brought out reports that they either stole or well as he liked to put it “borrowed” and handed them over to Kakashi.

“These are the new decrees in the human world as well as the people to be executed in the next coming months. Straight from Kabuto’s own desk mind you.” TenTen explained proudly, crossing her arm’s over herself and smiling up at Kakashi.

Kakashi’s eyebrow rose in astonishment at TenTen’s declaration, “As  much as I appreciate the enthusiasm TenTen, please don’t risk yourself unnecessarily. We don’t want you to end up on this list as well.” He said shaking the execution list at her.  

Kakashi noticed that Neji gave a small smile, as he saw the brown-haired girl scoff and simply shrug the advice off as if risking her life was as normal as breathing.

 Of course, being a spy for Blood Lord Tsunade Senju, and being a human as well, it was most likely a daily occurrence for the girl.

“My reports are on the upcoming trips Danzo plans on taking within the next month. Guard rotations and how he plans on traveling.” Neji reported. Kakashi tried not to look so impressed but, he was.

These kids, they really were something. As much as he worried for them, they really were quite incredible when they put their minds to it.

“I would repeat what I just told Miss TenTen but I’m assuming I’ll get an even more derisive response from you.” Kakashi said, earning himself a glare from the brown-haired male. Kakashi sighed and shook his head, _Kids!_ , Kakashi rooted around in his pack to find the next set of missions for this pair to take on.

He handed over the missive and started telling them the basic rules, “Keep your ear to the ground, TenTen. We’re hoping one of your informants have the information we seek about the true human king, and Neji, be on the lookout for any more unusual activity in the Day court and this time take it out.” Kakashi let his words sink in. Making eye contact with both of them to convey the gravity of each mission.

They both nodded at Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded back, “Alright, _Tenna’ ento lye omenta,”_ it was an official way to say good luck. Neji and TenTen both waved at him and they all departed the meeting spot.

Kakashi walked back to the place he had come from and made sure Neji and TenTen were well enough away to take out the blue crystal. The crystal would glow when Kakashi was upon the doorway he came out of.

He had been walking for a while longer than he remembered but the crystal still had yet to even flicker for him. Kakashi shook the crystal a little hoping that would do something to help the process along.

 _Hmm…maybe Itachi had to switch the path?_ Kakashi thought as he continued to walk further into the woods. He had just about given up when the crystal began to glow extremely bright by a birch tree that was rather full of leaves.

Kakashi hesitated for a moment trying to understand why he was so much further in than before but decided that he had no clue what type of magic fueled the secret path and simply shrugged and walked towards the tree in question.

Kakashi was definitely not back at the cherry blossom tree. Instead he was standing on the banks of the Hoshi River looking at what seemed to be a rather bad part of the river.

Kakashi continued to look out at the river with a confused expression on his face and then brought the crystal up towards the sky, maybe had pressed something on the crystal itself.

 _Shit. I can’t winnow back to the palace. I’m not on a sanctioned mission, technically speaking._ Plus, he knew Danzo had been tracking his comings and goings as much as possible recently. He still had yet to figure out who the little snitch was and it was bothering him.

After rubbing the crystal a few times Kakashi could find no possible indentations on the crystal. It was still completely smooth.

Suddenly he saw a rush of pink coming around the bend of the river. He pocketed the crystal trying to get a better look at the new color situation. He walked out closer to the edge of the bank trying to gain a better vantage point.

 _What in the world…wait…that’s a person!_ Kakashi suddenly realized, as the pink blob came closer to him. _Shit!_ The blob had gone under. Kakashi nearly raced out then, but the blob came back up and started racing further down the river.

Kakashi sprinted down the river bank after the pink haired, female…Kakashi surmised after getting a bit of a better look at the blob racing down the river. Kakashi finally got a little ahead of the girl and shot up into the sky.

Just as he went up into the air, the girl went under again. Kakashi dove as fast as he could towards the water.

His arms went under the surface and were able to wrap around the girl. Suddenly, Kakashi felt a zap of electricity go through his arms.  

 _What the hell!_ Kakashi tried to get a better grip on the girl and as he was maneuvering his arms, he saw it.

A large mouth with razor sharp teeth was enveloping both of them.

 _SHIT!_ Kakashi realized a giant eel was trying to eat them, and pushed his wings down hard to back out of the eel’s mouth.

Kakashi had just pulled them out of the eel’s mouth when it closed. It had been close, to the point where the eel had grazed his leg with its one tooth, and had a hold of the girl’s pack. Kakashi flapped his wings again to move them so that he could maneuver the girl and let the pack slip off of her.

He got some more air and moved upwards when a blue light started glowing around him and Kakashi was looking at the cherry blossom tree again. 

————————————————————————————————————————

Sakura was sore.

She could barely move her one arm and everything else just hurt. Other than the pain that she was feeling Sakura was trying to piece together what had happened to her.

Her memories were just flashes of things at this point.

_Beautiful blue eyes, a goofy smile, a scream. Looking into the deepest obsidian eyes she had ever seen, pain, pain, pain, cold, cold, cold, a voice, a wispy voice, what had the voice said. Green eyes, there were green eyes with that voice…. wait I think there’s someone actually talking to me._

Sakura tried, she really did, to open her eyes. But it was like her eyes had two-ton weights on them. And they were so gritty. She felt as if she had just fought her way through seven hells and back.

“Hello, c’mon girly work with me!” The voice, it was back. It seemed deeper than before. Then she felt as if someone was pounding on her chest. She moaned.

“Oh. thank the gods! Hello, can you hear me?” The voice had asked her a question, what was the question again?

She tried to move but her body wouldn’t listen to her. Why was she so sore? The voice had said something again. She tried opening her eyes again, and managed to open one this time.

Sakura was trying to process whether or not she was still delirious or not but what she saw really made her question if she was still alive or not. There was a man with black wings and white hair, very bushy white hair hovering above her.

Not to mention there was a giant cherry blossom tree behind the man and it looked like she was in a weird underground garden. She closed the one eye she managed to open.

“No use Pinky, it’s all very real.” The man stated, still hovering above her when she opened up both eyes.  She merely groaned not able to really move her mouth.

“Alright, can you answer a few questions for me?” She narrowed her eyes into a glare. _Was he really thinking she could answer him in her state!_

“Don’t glare girly, I already gave you the antidote to that poison you sustained. So, your mouth should be able to start working here soon. And that wound on your shoulder is already bandaged.”

She continued to glare at the man not knowing whether she should actually talk or remain silent. He hadn’t given enough information for her to deduce her best option. And gods she was still so sore.

“Yeah it looks like you took a beating. Can I ask why you were in the Hoshi River?” She ignored the question and tried sitting up. She couldn’t access her healing magic just yet. As she got up to move the man helped her up. Though his grip was gentle it was firm.

He wasn’t just gonna let her go it seemed. She touched her wounded shoulder assessing the man’s skill with the bandage. It wasn’t the best job, but it did what it needed to. It seemed he had bandaged people before, though not enough to be considered a healer.

She glanced over the man in question and noticed he’d done a quick bandage job on his leg as well.

“Why were you in the Hoshi River, Miss,” The white-haired man asked her as he grabbed her chin to make her look into his eyes, “and don’t avoid the question. That antidote should have worked by now.”

She glared at him but touched at her magic. _Oh, thank god! Her magic was low but it could help clean up the rest of the cuts and bruises she had gotten while in the river._ The hand left her chin as she used her healing magic.

“You’re a healer.” The white-haired male said looking wide eyed at her body, with the slight green glow emitting from herself.

“Yes.” Sakura croaked out. She didn’t bother healing her throat, that usually happened after almost drowning and she didn’t have enough magic to spare as it was.  Besides, she needed to heal the man’s leg.

As she reached for his leg, he backed away.

“I already told you I’m a healer.” She said, giving another signature Sakura glare at the male. He allowed her this time.

She unwrapped the half-assed bandage job and looked over the wound. At first glance it didn’t look too deep. Sakura poked and prodded the wound though just to be sure. It was a little deeper than she thought at first but she wouldn’t have to use too much magic to heal the cut.

She put her hand at the base of the wound and dipped into her magic again, forcing the muscles and skin to knit back together. Luckily whatever did this hadn’t nicked any tendons or the like. As she was knitting the skin, she checked for infections that could possibly have taken root and burned those out with her magic as well.

Satisfied he would be ok she sat back on her hands, taking a few moments to collect herself. The white-haired man looked at his leg and looked at her again. He cleared his throat and handed her a canteen.

At her hesitation he told her, “it’s not poisoned, though I doubt that would matter based on your skill.” She looked at him and held his gaze for a minute and took a big swig.

Once she had quenched her thirst and handed the canteen back to him. He put it back in a pouch and cleared his throat again.

“Let me guess, a black-haired brat, and a red-haired male attacked you around the wall? The brat used poison laced daggers? A little dramatic and smart-mouthed?” He asked. Sakura’s eyes widened as her memories came rushing back.

 _Holy crap! Naruto and the gang, and that asshole Uchiha! That’s right she had been working with Naruto and they had gotten separated thanks to the asshole chasing them down! She then accidentally knocked herself in the Hoshi River trying to get out of his weird magic dome, thing._  

“Where’s Naruto?” She asked. The man gave her a puzzled look.

“How do you know that name?” Kakashi asked.

“He’s my companion! He’s blonde and has bright blue eyes and a goofy smile, is he alright?! That asshole jerk didn’t hurt him, did he? I swear if he did, I’m gonna kick his ass into seven hells and then,”

“Ok ok, calm down. I don’t know where Naruto is nor do I know if the aforementioned asshole has him. I only saw you, no blonde kid, sorry.” Kakashi said holding up his hands as if to soothe her. She breathed through her nose trying to calm herself down.

It wouldn’t help if she panicked. Especially now that she was in some god’s garden, or hell. She really could never be to sure. Especially after the people she met on the daily. Though the place was breathtaking.

“Mind me asking how you came to know Naruto?” The man questioned. Sakura gave him a sharp look, focusing back to the stranger that had saved her.

“Yeah, you mind me asking why you helped me?” Sakura retorted.

“Mah I see a damsel in distress. I help out, just the type of guy I am.” Sakura gave the man her “seriously” face.

“Okkk, my charm is obviously not working on you. Who are you and why were you in the Hoshi River? I’m assuming you were the blimp on the border?” The male asked, arching his eyebrow at her.

Sakura sighed, “My name is Sakura. And I was in the Hoshi River by my own design.”

“Was it your own design? Because had I not come along you would have been giant eel food.”

“Like you said, damsel in distress, and all that shining knight bulllshit.” Sakura deadpanned, getting into a standing position.

“Your sarcasm may just get you killed one day, Pinky.” He said. She turned around the garden. Noticing the elegance surrounding her.

“Is today one of those days?” She asked, turning around to look at the man.  He gave her a quizzical look.

“No, I suppose not. You said your name was Sakura, right? You wouldn’t happen to be the halfer who does any job for the right price would you?” The man asked, assessing her a little more thoroughly than she’d like.

She shrugged, and placed her hands on her hips, “What if I am?”

“Hmmm, let me guess Naruto Uzumaki hired you to guide him, though I’m not quite sure what he wants. And you got attacked by a raven-haired boy and his red-haired companion and you guys jumped into the river to escape them?”

“You got a lot of it wrong.” She replied. Enjoying riling this guy up, “Besides why would I tell the Sliver Fang anything about me?”

“So, you do know who I am?”

“Barely, I’ve heard rumors among the fae, all I know is that there is a white-haired man who calls himself the Sliver Fang. And that he’s dangerous.”

“Mah, the names Kakashi.” He said finally standing up himself.

Sakura nodded, acknowledging the name, “So, Kakashi, where are we?”

To make her point she gestured around herself. Kakashi merely brushed by her and stepped up to the cherry blossom tree.

“I’m not really allowed to tell you. Though it’s used for traveling undetected, and that’s pretty much all you’ll get out of me.”

She arched her own pink brow at the man. When he merely gave her an eye-crinkling smile she sighed, knowing he’d not tell her anymore.

“Right, what now?” Sakura asked not really sure what the Silver Fang planned on doing to her. She still wasn’t at full power. Though he seemed gentle enough, she’d learned in her line of work to never truly doubt anything. Appearances usually were just that, appearances.

“Hmmm, that depends Sakura, you ever been to a palace ball?” Kakashi asked her. She just cocked her head, getting surprised yet again by her supposed enemy.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudo's and Comments are very much appreciated! Love to hear from you guys and how you're likin' the story!! Thank you again for reading this far into my little tale!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeahhhh, I suck. I know I kept promising you to update faster but yet again got hit with the wall that is writer's block. This one took a while til I was satisfied. And so Kasai Kiri I based off of this photo which I will copy to give you guys a reference. I do not own the photo or art that Is this photo, I merely gained inspiration and thank whoever did create this because it is utterly gorgeous! https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/9e/43/6d9e433d3ff7f50f002f42c2fc937161.jpg

Sasuke sighed pinching the bridge of his nose as he heard the noise in the cells rise. He was reporting to Itachi what had happened at the border wall, just now coming back from his flight.

He had decided to fly the whole way, seeing as he had needed to cool his head after the lash out of power at the river.

“He’s a loud one I see.” Itachi commented after the pitch in the cells had risen in the past few seconds. Sasuke nodded feeling for Gaara who was in there trying to intimidate the group.

“Iruka Umino was the mage that kept creating a blimp with the magic protecting the wall. It seems the blonde human, King Naruto Uzumaki is here with an advisor and mage, both human and an additional two halfers to form up the rest of his party.” Sasuke finished up his report.

“Hmm, interesting company to keep. Especially for a human King.” Itachi mused, staring at the door to the cells seemingly trying to decide his best option. Sasuke merely nodded, allowing his brother the quiet he needed.

“And the pink-haired halfer that was with the group?” Itachi asked. Sasuke kept his face as neutral as he could at the mention of the girl. _I don’t even know her name. Tch…Stop acting like an idiot Uchiha. Besides the damn blonde idiot had said it beforehand._ Though he honestly couldn’t remember it, the idiot had yelled a lot in the short span Sasuke had known him.

 Itachi had the annoying habit of trying to get Sasuke to open up to him about certain feelings even though he knew most of the answers.

“Dead.” Sasuke said, in a monotone voice. Closing his thoughts off to Itachi, so that his brother didn’t get the wrong impression of the simple fact that he still had her bag, which was tied at his hip. Though he himself still wasn’t quite sure why he had it.

Itachi continued to give him an impassive stare, and then sighed and shook his head. Glancing back at the cells.

“Alright, show the King and his entourage to one of the guest suites.” Itachi finally deduced.

Sasuke snapped his eyes up to his brother’s asking the question of why?

“He is a King Sasuke, we must show him some respect, even if he is on the run,” Itachi stated, “but make sure to find a suite near your own room, brother.”

Sasuke glared at his brother, he wasn’t sure this was the best option.

“You do know I can feel your glare Sasuke?” Itachi sighed, “I know what I’m doing. Besides, you yourself confirmed him to be the human king after he winnowed in front of you. Only an heir of the royal family can do that, after all.” Itachi surmised.

Sasuke sighed and nodded trying to have faith in his brother, who decided that his younger brother needed to get out of his own head for a bit and stood in front of him and poked his forehead, “Trust me Sasuke, this is for the best.”

“Itachi!” Sasuke rubbed his forehead where his brother poked him. Itachi merely chuckled at Sasuke’s expense.

“I leave them in your care, brother.” Itachi said, as he walked out of the dungeons of the palace. He most likely was late to a meeting for some Blood Lord or something.

Sasuke sighed again and walked through the door to see the blonde being shocked back from the bars into the opposite wall.

“That’s the third time he’s done that.” Gaara stated, noticing Sasuke’s eyebrows lift in silent surprise of the actions of the boy.

“Does he think he can break the magic by ramming himself into the bars?” Sasuke whispered to Gaara.

“That is my deduction, yes.” Gaara said. Sasuke just shook his head realizing how much trouble this group was gonna be.

* * *

 

 

Kakashi hadn’t exactly known what his plan had been when he offered the pink halfer an invitation to the ball, but he was almost positive Itachi would want to know about the girl.

The strange way the crystal had reacted to her was one of the major reasons for him asking her to the ball, the other being she had pink hair.

Which was still a little baffling to him, though he had a few theories at the moment. He needed more evidence to make him completely commit to what he had theorized.

Reaching his room in the palace, he led Sakura inside. Even though it made him fidget like a maniac, _No one came into his room, EVER,_ so it was a tad disconcerting for him to feel ok with it.

But without risking anyone else he decided this was the best option, for the moment at least, until he got orders from his Blood Lord.

“Here you are. Feel free to use whatever facilities you require and I should be back shortly.”

“Wait! Kakashi what do you expect-”, Kakashi interrupted her before she could finish that thought.

“Oh, and I’m sure you are already aware but do try not to leave this room, otherwise I will know and I’ll have a hard time trying to rescue you again.” He gave his signature smile to the girl.

“Rescue me?!? Hey wait then where-” Kakashi slammed the door shut in her face and made sure to lock the door.

He even added a few extra wards to his room just in case. He knew the girl was a clever one and he didn’t want to find out how clever before he could discuss his strategy with Itachi.

Hopefully she didn’t cause too much trouble.

* * *

 

Sakura huffed at the closed door. _Really that man was the limit!_

Sakura looked around the room Kakashi had decided to drop her in. _It’s definitely not a cell._ Which was confusing to her. The ‘Silver Fang’ didn’t seem like a man to do something so careless as leaving a possible threat to his Blood Lord alone and unattended.

She tried the door, _Unsurprising, locked tighter than an eight-day clock._ She pushed her magic out just enough to see what type of magic Kakashi had put on the door.

_Damn, he definitely didn’t lack in the power department._ She could feel the wards he had put on the door itself, she didn’t even want to imagine what type of other wards she’d have to get through before she could get out of this damn room.

She had handled a lot of ward magic in her time as a huntress, but never to this state of complexity.

_That’s what you get when you’re older than hell and learned from the best,_ she surmised. She huffed again. She needed a plan, she wasn’t just going to wait on some silver-haired fox and expect everything to go in her favor.

She started looking through the room. It was beautifully designed, pillows everywhere, large, small, fluffy, soft, thick, oblong, all where maximized for comfort.

 Stunningly designed lanterns were hanging from the ceiling in an s-pattern, with intricate patterns of the moon, the sun and stars carved into them giving the room a sort of mood lighting, and surprisingly the natural light streaming in from the bay window worked with the dynamic of lighting.  

 Intricately detailed wall tapestries detailing a story of a boy and a girl, the girl having a more purple tinted tapestry and the boy having a red and black theme on his tapestry, hung along the wall leading to an archway that had purple and black curtains draped along it, concealing a large bed. _So, silver fox has a thing for purple and black in his décor. Not what I was expecting but hey each to his own, I guess._  And behind the bed was an arched doorway leading to a small bathing and toilet facility.

 The only real furniture in the room were the huge bed, and the bench built underneath the bay window, that seemed to look out to the garden he had dragged her through after departing that weird cave area.

Which was a trippy experience considering she really had never winnowed before. It had felt like she was being sucked through a small pinhole. She shook herself at that memory, focusing on finding any other option than working on the wards.

She went to the windows, seeing if she could smash her way through, they of course were coated in a heavy protection seal, that would hurt her more than help if she did manage to break the windows.

She then inspected the bathroom facility seeing if there was some type of a pipe, she could somehow ram herself into…no such luck. Even the mirror was protected against harm. The damn room was probably locked tighter than an actual cell room.

After walking out of the bathroom, Sakura flopped down on the biggest, fluffiest, and softest pillow she could find and started to tap into her magic.

She set another pulse out to deduce the type of wards protecting the room again. The trick for her being able to figure out which ones were keeping her in and keeping others out, as well as not setting them off with her own magic.

Luckily, she had always had amazing control over her magic, which was ideal for working with ward magic. Wards themselves were reminiscent of going through an intricate maze that had multiple levels until you reached the room with a key. And then found the exact way to turn the key to unlock the actual ward.

She centered herself, breathing in and out a few times, figuring out which ones she needed to disable.

Kakashi really was a pro, he had levels of wards she had never even seen before. _He certainly liked his privacy._

She found the placement of one of the wards, in the bathroom up on the ceiling. _Really?! Ugh the curse of being forever a short girl!_ Sakura thought stamping her foot on the tiled floor of the bathroom.

_Probably why he didn’t have any furniture in the room, all the wards seemed to be located on the ceiling of the room._ She looked around again, looking for anything that could give her a little boost.

_Ok, Sak you’re a huntress and one of the best you are NOT going to be trumped by the simple thing of a ceiling being too tall for you!_

She patted herself looking for her bag, realizing she didn’t actually have it. She must’ve dropped it in that damn river. She really didn’t want to use her magic for this considering the ward was really going to take it out of her but it looked like she had no other choice.

Giving herself a steeling breath, _only got one shot at this, otherwise I’m seriously screwed,_ she turned the faucet of the sink on and backed up a little bit and reached her hand out.

The water started defying gravity and slithered its way towards her, Sakura flicked her wrist and bended the water around her and then flung her hands towards the ceiling for the water to then freeze to the ceiling

Once she was on level with the ward, she concentrated a portion of her magic into maintaining the freezing temperature on the two sections of water and then focused the rest on revealing the ward and breaking her way out.

She brushed her hand along the section of the ceiling it was on, making the ward start to glow a low blue. She put her hand on top of it and started to get to work.

Easing her way into the first level of a ward she felt the undulating wave rhythm that was this ward’s type of maze.

 Not about to get lost she followed the ward enough to deduce the best way to work her way into the ward so it thought of her as an extension of itself, therefore allowing her to inactivate it.

She started to brush her magic against it, and nearly got thrown back.

_Shit, I’m weaker than I thought. I need to give more magic to the ward._ Sakura was sweating profusely at this point; the whole day had been a long one and her body was starting to feel the drain of it.

She shook herself and refocused, she was pushing it but she could do this if she just put a little more effort into it. She closed her eyes and brushed her magic against the ward, this time it allowed her access. Sakura smirked to herself.

* * *

 

 

“So, let me get this straight, the crystal actually led you to this pink halfer, the one that was with the group of stowaways, that are now being guarded by my brother, who has also just reported her  dead and yet somehow she miraculously got you to save her and bring her here, to the Uchiha palace…” Itachi reiterated, giving Kakashi a look of absolute disbelief.

“Not to mention I think she could possibly be the only child of the fae male Kizashi, also known as the ‘Titan’.” Kakashi added in. Rubbing his neck because Itachi’s glare only seemed to deepen at that last bit of information.

“Of course! Let’s not forget that bit of information!” Itachi said, getting up from his seat to look out the window. Looking out to see Kasai Kiri, the capital of the Night Court, and aptly named, being positioned amongst a mountain range littered with waterfalls. Itachi’s gaze seemed to linger on the highest point of the city.

It was where they placed their dead’s ashes in a hollowed-out camphor tree. Kakashi himself spent many days there visiting his dead. Knowing the same peace that seemed to come to him there, most likely was mirrored in his Blood Lord.

 Kakashi waited there patiently, waiting for Itachi to finish his musings and acknowledge him, especially since his plan for the girl would be an even harder pill for Itachi to swallow if not presented correctly.

Itachi sighed, not turning around from the window, but Kakashi took what he could get, “What makes you believe the girl is related to Kizashi?”

“She has pink hair. If that’s not the biggest indicator than you can call me a fool now, considering I’ve never seen anyone, fae, human or halfer have that type of coloring,” Itachi finally did turn around from the window to glower at Kakashi, knowing his former teacher to be known as a genius if not a little eccentric, “but the crystal itself was another indicator for me. I’ve never seen it react that why towards anyone. Not any of us and we’re the only ones that use the damn thing! Kizashi himself designed that entire set up down there. We have no idea what he allowed these crystals to do. Other than what he told your father. And the Titan was known to be mischievous, not to mention the girl is cunning as well, if not downright roguish, a trait she seems to share with her father. To sum up…she’d be a valuable asset to have in these uncertain times.”

“You seemed to have taken a liking to her. Which is strange coming from you. I’ve never known you to connect with anyone, let alone within a few minutes of meeting them.” Itachi said, giving Kakashi another confounded look.

Kakashi merely held eye contact with his Blood Lord. He had a hunch and he was rarely wrong about his hunches. Pointedly ignoring the ‘taking a liking to her’ bit, since he actually did enjoy her. She was quick witted, and sassy to boot. But it didn’t mean he had ‘taken a liking to her’.

Itachi huffed and was about to speak his mind when a loud boom could be heard.

“Please tell me you didn’t leave her alone, Kakashi?” Itachi asked. Kakashi gave a slight noncommittal shrug at the statement.

Then both of the men rushed off. Kakashi winnowing to his room, while Itachi followed close behind.

Kakashi arrived in front of his room looking at a closed door with smoke running out from underneath it. He hadn’t winnowed directly into the room just in case the girl was setting a trap for him.

Itachi behind him said, “I’m assuming she was trying to break the wards.” Kakashi nodded and opened the door.

His room was filled with clouds of smoke, and an acrid smell of burning fabric. _Well I’ll be smelling that for months._  Kakashi coughed and swatted some of the smoke away.

Itachi coughed as well, and he lifted his hand up and the smoke was gone in a flash. _Perks of being one of the most powerful Blood Lords this world has ever seen._ Kakashi thought giving an appreciative glance to his Blood Lord.

Once the smoke had disappeared, Kakashi looked for the pink-haired culprit.

“Oh Sakura?!” Kakashi sung. He and Itachi both couldn’t see the girl and Kakashi moved further into his room noticing the door to the bathroom was slightly ajar.

He motioned to Itachi to follow him into the bathroom and found a crater in his bathroom’s ceiling and debris from the blast in his sink and tub. _Great, now I’ll have to ask Itachi to fix that bit of damage._ Kakashi decided to deal with that later and looked back up to the crater in his ceiling, when he saw a flash of pink going past it.

_SHIT!_ Kakashi winnowed up to the roof, Itachi following close behind him.

“Strange, I can’t pick up her thoughts.” Itachi said.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me?” Kakashi questioned. Itachi shrugged.

“She is definitely resourceful.”

Kakashi merely hummed before jumping up in the air to spot a pink haired menace. Itachi racing off in the other direction.

_He definitely was NOT enjoying this pink halfer like Itachi implied! The girl was a troublemaker!_ Kakashi thought as he flew, looking for Sakura. He’d forever deny he was smiling, however slight, as he dropped down, getting a better wind current.

* * *

 

Sakura couldn’t believe she had actually cracked one of Kakashi’s wards. The damn thing was disguised as a water affinity ward type, when at the end it had actually been a fire affinity.

Which is how the ceiling exploded and nearly fell on top of her, if she hadn’t lost concentration on her freezing magic and swung the opposite direction than the falling ceiling would have come crashing down on her and she would’ve been hurting and very much stuck.

Considering breaking that ward had taken almost everything she had at the moment. She honestly couldn’t believe she was still moving but here she was racing across a large tiled rooftop to go find a human king.

_What had her life come to?_ Sakura thought, _and all in the span of like, what, five days?_ Sakura rolled her eyes, _seriously she had just been a normal halfer, trying to get more shells so she could make a living! Now I’m in the Night Court, with Uchiha guards chasing after me and trying to make sure a troublesome human king doesn’t die!_ After thinking this Sakura’s foot slipped on  part of the tiled roof.

All the freakin’ rooftops where slippery as hell, and not to mention she had already tried her luck, jumping down from the rooftop she had busted through onto a lower leveled roof. Honestly, she was surprised she hadn’t slipped sooner.

_Why the hell was there water all over the roofs?!_ Sakura cursed, suctioning herself to the roof, just barely stopping herself from plummeting to her death.  

Which is when she realized how high up, she was, _fucking hell! This place was amazing, but seriously she was so dead!_

It seemed the Uchiha palace was almost exclusively built along a mountain range. The reason for the water on the castle roofs were the waterfalls that were formed along the mountain.  Sakura looked around and noticed what looked to be a city that was spiraled across the mountain range, and built along and around the waterfalls that permeated the area.

Creating a view of intense beauty, but Sakura kept getting hung up on the fact she was dangling from a very wet rooftop and she couldn’t exactly fly.

Sakura didn’t have anything against heights really, it was just when she was this high, she realized how very much she was only a halfer and had no ability other than possibly healing her very broken body if she fell.

Which she of course would not be able to do at this point after being nearly drained after her very eventful day.

She mustered her courage and looked to see what was around her, so that she could possibly gain a little more purchase to steady herself.

_There!_ If she angled herself just a little more, she could let herself freefall onto a balcony. That looked to be vacant at the moment, she hoped. With one last steeling breath, she sent a silent prayer up to her mother and threw herself off the roof and aimed her body as best she could for the balcony.

_MOTHERS TITS! WHAT HAD SHE BEEN THINKING!_ Freefalling was a rather different experience when you were so far up that you were above most of the trees she had climbed as a child.

And then all of a sudden, she was gliding past the balcony she had been aiming for, _Wait a minute PAST?!_ She blinked a few more times and even pinched herself to make sure she hadn’t just fallen and actually killed herself and her soul just wasn’t racing up to be with her mother.

When she heard a chuckle. She looked behind her realizing there was a man holding her by the scruff of her undershirt. _She definitely needed new clothes before she most likely fell to her death._

“I’m Itachi Uchiha, the Blood Lord of the Night Court and you must be the pink halfer I’ve heard so much about.”

* * *

 

Naruto really didn’t like this black-haired jerk. Not only was he super pompous and, well a jerk! But he was the guy who had stopped him saving Sakura. He had no idea where she was or if she was even alive. All he could do was hope that she had somehow managed to get herself out of trouble.

_She was a super awesome Huntress there’s no way she couldn’t have…right?_ He shook his head, holding onto that hope and refusing to let go of it.

The jerk had said something, which Naruto didn’t hear and promptly rammed right into him.

“Are you always this spacey or is it just the awe you feel in my presence that has you acting like that?” The jackass said. And before Naruto could even think to stop himself, he let his anger get the better of him.

“Hey! I’m not a space-case! And I want to know where Sakura is?! You were going after her, weren’t you?!” Naruto all but spit in his face. The guy hadn’t said anything about Sakura since he came into the cell room.

Naruto was going nuts with not knowing if she was ok. He continued glaring at the jerk and refused to back up. The guy refused to back down as well it seemed.

When something flickered across the pretty boy’s face, almost like regret, but Naruto wasn’t positive, when his face became an impassive porcelain wall again.

The bastard continued to glare at Naruto when he finally reached to his waist, confusing Naruto. _Why would he reach down there?_ When he held out Sakura’s bag and handed it over to Naruto.

“I’m sorry. This was all I could find of her.” He said, keeping that stupid mask of his in place. Naruto took Sakura’s bag, she had yelled at him earlier in the day for nearly dropping it.

 

> _“Naruto! Be careful that has all my salves, poultices, and antidotes! They’re very delicate!” Sakura had yelled. She came bounding over to him, smelling like the cherry blossoms blooming in the spring in the courtyard at the palace. It had been his favorite time of the year at the castle. She bonked him on the head, bringing him back to the present._
> 
> _“Sorry Sakura, I didn’t know.” He said sheepishly. She gave him a small smile and took the bag from him. “It’s ok just be careful next time. I might need something in here to save your sorry ass, and don’t want to risk losing you because you somehow sabotaged yourself.” She had chuckled at the irony of it. He liked her laugh. It was pretty. Just like her smile he thought._
> 
> _“Besides this is my most precious possession. My Mom actually gave it to me as a birthday gift. She said now that I was ready to be a healer I might as well have the tools of one.” She said with a sad smile, remembering something he was not privy too._
> 
> _Naruto noticed Sakura always had that sad smile when talking about her mother. He supposed he probably had that same look when he talked about his father._
> 
> _“So, why’d you become a Huntress instead?” Naruto asked on bated breath. He hadn’t actually meant to say the question, it just sort of popped out. Sakura looked at her bag a little longer smoothing over an inscription on the front of the bag._
> 
> _Looking up, still with that sad, sad smile, she just said, “It’s a long story.”_
> 
> _He had left it at that then. Realizing she hadn’t wanted to talk about it and it wasn’t like he was a complete idiot._

“This was a gift from her mother.” Naruto whispered. The bastard’s mask seemed to break a little at hearing what he had said. Showing a slew of emotions across the pretty boy’s face before he cleared his throat and turned back around, and said, “Follow me, your accommodations are only a little further.”

Naruto looked back at Iruka, he felt rather numb with the information that she had died. Iruka came up and put his hand on his shoulder.

“I…we’re sorry. She…she was a remarkable girl. I…we need to focus on our mission, hmm?” Iruka said to Naruto, but Naruto saw the tears in his mentor’s eyes. He was feeling her loss just as much as he was.

Naruto swallowed and nodded, “We’ll honor her memory, she got us into the Night Court after all.” He gave a small chuckle at that, seeing the irony of the statement. Tying her bag at his waist, double-knotting it like she had done herself only a few hours previously.

Shikamaru huffed but nodded along with him, masking his emotion as best he could, looking anywhere but at the group.

 Kiba merely nodded, looking down at Akamaru and patting his head when he whined, attuned to his master’s feelings.

 And Lee was crying but he was clenching his fists, trying to hold back the flood gate Naruto knew would be released when they were in private.

He turned around on his heel and saw the red-haired fae was standing here, with a confused look on his face. Naruto looked back down, still too shocked to do much more than look at his feet and make sure they were going one in front of the other.

When Naruto realized someone else’s feet where beside his, unless he had somehow gotten two more crossing the border?

He looked up to see dark-rimmed, seafoam green eyes looking at him, with a question.

“What?” he asked.

“You are…in distress?” The red-haired guy asked him. Naruto just nodded his head not wanting to speak, in case he pulled a Lee and started crying.

“For a halfer…that you barely knew?” The fae asked again. Naruto glanced up at the fae realizing the fae actually did seem to be confused by their grief.

“She was…she was our friend, so yeah.” Naruto summed up, nearly losing it there.

That seemed to satisfy the fae, as he gave Naruto a nod. They walked a little further down a hallway before the pretty boy finally stopped at a door.

“This will be your lodging, for the time being. Should you require anything just let Bumble and Lily know.” The jerk said, opening up the door for the group to file in to the rather sumptuous suite. It had a main living area that opened up to a kitchen area in the back and then had two hallways that must’ve led back to the bedrooms. It was decadently decorated with comfortable looking furniture for the occupants to lounge on, but the view out did all the decadence inside with the windows looking out across Kasai Kiri.

Or in the common tongue ‘The Fire hidden in the Mist’, the group stopped to stare at the room, whereas the jerk abruptly turned and promptly walked out the door. _That bastard, he really is a pompous ass._

 The red head followed close behind and then abruptly stopped right outside the door.

“Merely speak Bumble’s and Lily’s name and they shall appear. Have a good day.” With a short bow, he was gone as well.

Naruto nodded, and looked back over at his friends, when he noticed a small bee like creature on Iruka’s shoulder.

“Uhm…Iruka what is that?” He said pointing at the thing. Iruka looked down where Naruto was pointing noticing the small creature as well. It had short, curly hair and what appeared to be wings. The creature suddenly stood up to its full height, which was no more than the length of Naruto’s kunai.

The creature had yellow skin with black markings on her body, as well as blue intermixed in the black markings and white eyes.

“Hiya, name’s Bumbles! I’m Lord Sasuke’s attendant while he is in the palace. Lord Gaara called me. You must be the new brats in town aye?” Naruto just kept staring, trying to compute this little fairy that also had a squeaky voice talking to him.

When Kiba gave a shout. On Akamaru’s head was a small flower…person! Well fairy, obviously but she, (he thought it was a she, but he wasn’t sure?) they were covered in a pink dress, with a bloom surrounding its small face. Its wings were green leaves whereas its legs were a stem split into two, with thorns along the back of them.  

“You must be Lily then?” Iruka asked, the small pink thing bowed at Iruka’s acknowledgement.

“You betcha! She’s the other attendant of Lord Sasuke’s when he’s at the palace. She’s a lot quieter than I am but don’t let it fool ya! She’s even more devious than me!” The other fairy, Bumbles, said.

Naruto needed to sit. He had had a long day, and seeing fairies that he had only ever dreamed about meeting were making his brain hurt.

“Soooo, you guys goin’ to the ball too?” Bumbles asked, flitting over to land on Naruto’s shoulder.

“Ball?” asked all the guys.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know, I keep teasing "the ball" but that will definitely be next chapter I just feel like I had a few things I needed to clear up before the said ball actually happens! But hopefully the writing bites me again so I can update, but its hard with irl! trying to find jobs suck! :( But anyways hope you enjoyed! please leave kudos or comments! Please and thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> OK! so that's the end of chapter 1! I hope you enjoyed! Comments and Kudos are much appreciated! Thanks


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